Rainbow Solution
by Noir Detective
Summary: Loosely based on Reptilla28 challenge and One wizard too many. Slight crossover with Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Harriet Potter died again and her reaper is in a really desperate position and desperate times asks for desperate solutions. Rainbow Solution. Rated M for future Violence
1. Chapter 1

**AN: this was betead ****by Philosophize check his stories out they are awesome.**

**Loosely based on Reptilla28 Don't fear the reaper challenge and One wizard too many.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes****.**

"_People tend to say that at the moment right before you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. You have a moment of perfect clarity, when your life was without any emotional strain or attachment. They say that in this moment, you will know what type of person you were and what type of life you have led and where you will be heading. Heh, I didn't have even the slightest idea that it was just a beginning for me…."_

Chapter One

**Currently**

A dark-haired girl woke up in cold sweat from the weirdest dream she ever had. She felt that her internal creepy-meter just went and blew off its top. It wasn't the first time she woke up in an unfamiliar room. In fact, she was partly expecting, or to be more precise hoping, that she would wake up in an unfamiliar hospital room. This room though was vastly different from what she was expecting a proper hospital room to wake up in would be. There was no IV hooked on her arm. There were no monitoring machines present at all.

It was unsettling her even more.

She tried to look around, but her vision was slightly blurry.

"_The hell! What happened to my sight? _" Went through her head. She tried to collect her thoughts. _"Okay be cool_, _everything's gonna be alright. There's a logical explanation for this, I hope._" She told herself before making an attempt to remember what the hell happened to her.

Her last memory was of her ex-protégé Gabriel, who she was trying to capture for his terrorist activities. It ended with him pulling a gun on her at the moment she thought she had him. She remembered the pain as the bullet pierced her neck.

There was a blurry nightstand to her left, so she reached for it. On top, she found two things. One: a pointy stick that gave her a strange sense of warmth at a touch. Two: a pair of glasses, or at least that's what her fingertips told her. She gingerly took the glasses and wore them. The world became cleaner, sharper and less blurry.

Further left was a similar old-fashioned hospital bed, occupied by a brown-haired girl. The girl would be around fourteen years old, she guessed.

To her right was a red-haired boy, moaning and slightly snoring in his sleep.

She made a mistake, looked down and saw her body. She nearly screamed out loud at what she saw. This definitely didn't look anything like her body! _"Fuck, Fuck and FUCK! What the hell? Did I smoke bad batch of weed? I wasn't some scrawny teenager last time I checked! I went through puberty years ago, thank you very much! Once was enough! This couldn't be real, 'cause if it was, then it's beyond trippy."_

She felt that she was way beyond freaked and creeped out. She left her bed and almost immediately fell flat on her face. Her legs were far shorter than she was used to. With a silent curse, she picked herself up off the floor and looked over the remaining sleeping occupants of the infirmary.

She, as silently as she could manage, sneaked out the nearest door. She found out that it lead into a bathroom. She slowly walked in, closing the door quietly. She walked up to the sink and stared at her face in the mirror. Closing her eyes, she let the water run. She took a deep, calming breath and splashed ice-cold water on her face. It was a few seconds later before she opened her eyes to stare in her reflection again.

It was still the same. It was both hers and that of a stranger's. Memories that weren't her own surfaced suddenly out of nowhere, hitting her like a speeding semi slamming onto an elderly pedestrian. What really spooked her out was that she suddenly remembered the strangest conversation she had ever had.

She groaned out loud and said to herself, "Well fuck, it was real after all!"

**Somewhere else, somewhat earlier**

Somewhere on a higher plane, or to be more precise, in the Bureau of Premature Death Prevention sat a very unhappy grim reaper named Natasha Grimm (no relation to her boss). She was a senior reaper. She enjoyed her job most of the time. It was a challenging one, yes, but rewarding nonetheless.

Right now though, she was one unhappy reaper. No scratch that. She was beyond unhappy! That Potter girl had her soul sucked a few seconds ago. That was going to be a real problem for her.

She knew that the soul eaten by a dementor was forced to relive every bad thing that had happened in its life, regardless if the event was erased from the time-stream, or placed in the loop for an eternity.

After her two-minute rant on the unfairness of her life and a seriously unpleasant call to another department to fetch the Potter girl's soul from the dementors, she sat behind her desk. Not having anything better to do, she reviewed the girl's file. Truth to be told, she never read it properly and now she had this nagging feeling that she should know more about her errant client.

The Potter's case file was reassigned to her not even a year ago, and the only instance she had to deal with it was when the girl was slipped a dose of a badly brewed love potion. As she read the file now, she frowned more and more.

She knew the girl was dealt a bad hand by the fates, but she didn't know it was this bad! No, this went beyond the limits of her imagination and not in the good sense.

The girl wasn't even fourteen years old and she had nine previous unauthorized deaths.

"_I should have paid more attention to her."_ She moaned bitterly, as she read all previous deaths and frowned some more. This wasn't right! No. This was bloody not right! The girl, according to the Fates' prophecy, was destined to defeat two dark lords; and if a miracle didn't happen now then it wasn't going to happen.

The girl was beaten to death twice. Once by her uncle when she was six. Again when she was eight years old. It was a concerted beating from her relatives. At age nine, she was raped by her drunken uncle and subsequently died from internal injuries.

There was a long note describing that time had to rewind and events had to be manipulated to prevent her uncle from doing the deed again.

Then during her first year at Hogwarts, she died twice. The first time, Dumbledore was too slow and she broke her neck after falling from her jinxed broom high up in the air at the Quidditch pitch. Second, she got eaten by Fluffy, because the three-headed dog didn't consider Hermione's music-box to be music.

During her second year, she got eaten by an acromantula and by a basilisk.

At this point Natasha briefly wondered if the girl had some kind of weird fetish for getting eaten, the pattern was quite disturbing.

This year, she died from a badly brewed dose of Amortentia, and then those bloody dementors happened.

She flipped to the girl's medical profile and cringed. Though there was a lot of evidence of severe maltreatment and abuse, most of it had been healed magically, leaving virtually no physical evidence.

What made her really wince was the sheer numbers of loyalty-, mind-controlling and love potions in her system. She has been obliviated multiple times and the sheer number of compulsion charms placed on her… It was a miracle that the girl wasn't a walking vegetable. Yet she was somehow managing to regain some of her free will and continuously managed to fight and break the magics on her.

Natasha shook her head and massaged her temples. She flipped onto the page that detailed the girl's assigned fate.

As she read, her mind whirled, _"Oh brother, she has one dark lord to kill and to get rid of misguided light lord then drag the wizarding world to the 21__st__ century! Suuure…no biggie! That could be done in a day's work!"_ She concluded bitterly to herself.

She turned to the pages that contained a predicted progression of the girl's life. She felt her blood turn cold.

The girl would manage to kill one dark lord and inadvertently cause the death of the second one, alright. However, she would succumb to the plans of the second; he would end up having the last laugh as all his plans for the girl herself would work out—she would be a sex toy completely stripped of free will. The girl would die shortly after her marriage. Her final death would push her true friends, who were trying to save her, into an open revolt. The revolution would end up shoving the wizarding world into the 21st century. Fulfilling her fate at last.

A horrifying outcome for the girl if anybody asked, Natasha's opinion.

Her phone rang and she hesitantly answered.

"Tasha, could I come down to your office?"

"Yes," she replied hesitantly "What's the matter?"

"Listen, it would be better, if I... if we talked in person. I would be there in a second okay? " said the voice wearily before the line went dead, not waiting for her reply.

Tasha frowned. That was Sidney Freedman. He worked at upper management in Soul Retrieval and he was handling the Potter's soul after its extraction from the dementors. He was also supposed to deal with the damage done to it.

He was a solid guy all around. He used to be a psychiatrist when he was still alive, and he was a good friend of hers.

Sid arrived mere seconds later. One look at him told her that he was the bearer of bad news.

"Sid, spill! What's the damage?"

He gestured with his hand conjuring a comfortable, overstuffed armchair for himself and got seated.

He let out a tired sigh and said, "The dementors did a real number on her. She re-lived all of her previous deaths and all of her bad experiences numerous times. She's beyond broken now. I have never seen anybody like that." He said sadly.

"I wanted to send her on, but I was blocked by the Fates telling me she has to fulfill her destiny. That too many lives depended on her or some other bullshit. Hell, one of them even had the balls to tell me that I should just erase the whole experience from her memory then send her back. That I had to be done with it. Even if I did that, she would still need a century's worth of therapy and loving care before she could return to a normal life and fulfil her fate! It pains me to say this, but I am at the wit's end!" He finished dejectedly.

Tasha stared at him, her mind processing what was said. She slumped in her chair, head in her hands and asked, "Where is she now?"

Sid looked at her sharply, "Still in my office. I managed to smuggle her parents there. They're trying to comfort her. But look, you can't send her back! I won't allow it!" He said looking at her stubbornly.

"Yeah I understand, but we would need to do something or they'd take this from us and still do what the Fates wanted!" Tasha said sadly as she got up and paced around the office.

Sidney remained seated, staring at wall thinking.

Their silence was interrupted when a bell rang, signalling that Natasha had a new case. A file materialized on her table in her Inbox tray.

Sidney, ever the gentleman, stood up and picked the file intending to hand it to Tasha when he noticed the note on the cover.

The note stated—'_Debriefing of the soul and fate accomplished. Still has chances for life left. Needs consultation, if she's willing to continue with her life or wants to move on.'_

"Could I?" Sidney asked.

"Knock yourself out!" Tasha growled, not even stopping in her pacing.

He opened the folder and looked on the soul's CV. His eyebrows shot upwards. "Tasha, where did you keep your _Guide to realities_?" He tried hard to conceal his growing excitement.

Tasha just waved her hand towards a bookcase. "Third shelf on the left." She said absentmindedly.

Sidney took the book from the shelf and sat at her desk. He furiously flipped the pages, searching for certain entries.

Tasha finally noticed that Sidney was sitting behind her table. The man was flipping through the book and occasionally looking between the Potter's file and the new case file.

She sat in Sidney's vacated chair and watched him work with growing interest. Suddenly a light bulb appeared and lit over his head. He casually reached up and switched the light off. He smiled at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. His eyes glinted too sinister for her tastes.

"Tasha, according to this book the wizarding world we are talking about is very backward. They're still in the Victorian era. Very focused in on itself. Blood status means everything to these people. Most of them disregard the mundane world and its progress. Am I right in this?"

Tasha frowned as she saw the light bulb. She was wondering what Sidney was up to. "Yes. Why?"

"I've had an idea. A nefarious idea! It probably would get us both fired! But if it works then it will rock the wizarding world upside down! It will leave no stone un-turned! He, he!" He said with a wide grin.

"Sidney, now you're scaring me. What're you up to?"

"Look, the kid's broken; and I don't think even the most extensive work from our side to repair her psyche would work on such short notice. Maybe after a century or two of rehabilitation would. But our standard procedure of wiping her memory clean, returning her to her time-stream and influencing the situation a little to prevent her death isn't very feasible here. "

"So?"

"I propose to make a copy of her memories, smuggle her to the other side and dump this soul instead," Sidney waved the new case file, "into her body and give the soul Potter's memories."

"Wouldn't the Fates notice?" asked Tasha.

He grinned, "No! She would have Potter's memories and body. Some cover-up from our side would need to be done of course, but we'd be drowning it all in paperwork. She practically would **be** **Potter** and after her life ends, we'd shuffle papers again and none would be the wiser!"

Tasha thought it sounded like a good idea to her. Not that they had any other better alternatives. She asked, "Okay, I'll bite. What made this new soul special, that you thought she would be able to handle Potter's fate and life?"

Sidney's grin became feral. "We would give them the hero they need; but not exactly the type of hero they want. Let me introduce you to Simulated Major Samantha "Sam" Mencner—42 years old. Born in Chicago, to Czech immigrants. Has a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. Joined the FBI right after university, after completing field training-with honors. She served three years in the FBI SWAT unit. Due to her performance, she was selected for HRT training. She completed it with flying colors. Soon selected as a team leader. Participated in joint exchange programs with the US Army's Combat Applications Group, otherwise known as 1st SFOD-D or Delta Force, and the British SAS. After two years of service with HRT, she was forced to resign due to the revelation of her sexual orientation. She then was recruited by Team Rainbow."

"That's interesting, but who or what's team rainbow?" said Tasha.

"Rainbows are…" Sidney trailed off a bit, thinking how to say it, "They're the international counter-terrorist black ops based in the UK. Widely considered the best of the best. She's a living legend among them. Known as Bishop a.k.a. Rainbow Five. She served part-time as a Rainbow Academy Recruit Instructor too. Got killed in action a few minutes ago by her own student after she found out that he was a terrorist mole. She destroyed his organization and tried to apprehend him alive. She was more or less successful in that."

He paused for a second.

"In other words, she's a bonafide badass. Tough as nails, clever, resourceful and ruthless when she needed to be. An expert shot. Proficient in armed and unarmed combat. Certified in every imaginable combat environment and method of deployment. She's not magical as her world generally lacks magic and was a bit ahead in the time-stream than that of the Potter girl. This could work to our advantage!" he postulated with an evil gleam in his eyes.

Natasha looked at him with admiration then frowned, "If we can manage to convince her to agree with us, what would happen again to the real Potter?"

"We'd sneak her over to the other side. I know a few people from my mortal life in there. People who could help her. With their combined help, and of course help from her parents too, she might get better in time." He finished as an after thought.

Natasha nodded. "Okay, let's do it! I really think it could blow up in our faces but as they say-no guts no glory! Go, get her memories!" Said Tasha as she leaned over and picked the earpiece from her phone.

"Central? I have one more soul down there. Some woman named _Mesnser_? Sorry, no idea how it's pronounced. Please send her to my office. I'd deal with her and my other charge right now." She looked at Sidney who was standing in the doorway giving her a thumbs-up before he turned and disappeared.

Moments later a woman appeared in the same doorway. She stood there with a slightly confused expression on her face. She was dressed in a camouflage army outfit. Not overly tall. Athletic-looking with hazel eyes, sharp features and short, light brown hair.

Natasha looked at her and asked, "Samantha Metser, I presume?"

"Mencer. But yes, that's me. Where am I and who're you?" said Sam curiously.

Sam's eyes darted around the room, looking for possible escape routes. She was a wary at the moment. No big surprise there! One moment, she was trying to reason with Gabe, who went for his gun. She shot him but he managed to shoot at her too. She was sure she felt the bullet hit her on the neck. The next second, she was sitting in a large waiting room filled with beings, both humans and not.

She started to suspect that she has just joined the bleedin' choir invisible.

A blue woman with two large tentacles coming out of her head was seated next to her. The woman told her she had to wait till her name was called. They talked for a short while. Sam gathered that the woman was some kind of an alien space-general or knight who got shot in the back by her own troops.

Once Sam heard her name called, she found herself unceremoniously dumped into an office as if by magic.

"I'm Natasha Grimm and I'm your personal Grim Reaper. Please be seated. We have a lot to discuss." said Natasha with a friendly smile.

Sam blinked as she sat and hesitantly said, "Soo…I'm dead, right?"

"Well… that's still to be determined. Look Sam…could I call you Sam?"

After getting a strange look and an affirmative nod, Natasha continued, "You can call me Tasha, if you wish. I'm going to be very frank with you. The situation you're in is a bit complicated and we have to solve it. We have several options to do it, but to maintain all the 'free will' aspect and as you have already fulfilled your destiny, you can choose from the options. Still with me?"

"Yes, I think so," replied Sam with a slight frown.

"Excellent!" Said Tasha. "Option one, there's still a chance you could survive-if we and by that I meant my department-manipulate the situation a little. Your mortal wound would be changed into a less perilous one if you wanted to return back to your mortal life. Option two, is to move on into another great adventure."

Tasha paused for a second before continuing; "The second was our option for someone in your situation. However, there's also a third one and I'd like you to consider it." She noticed that Sidney slipped back into the room unnoticed and was holding a large bottle of silvery liquid in his hand. He was still giving her a thumbs-up sign.

Sam looked at Tasha suspiciously. "Okayyy, I'll bite. From your tone, I guess the third's not something common or in accordance with the 'rules'? So, what's this third option?"

"Weeellll. As you guessed, the third's completely against "company" policies and we're offering this to you because we're desperate. We had no other options. If you decline, we won't hold it against you. "

Tasha started to explain the situation to Sam about the Potter girl, her life and situation, her fate and its probable outcome. How the girl's fate would probably be completed without any interference from them.

Tasha couldn't tell Sam who was gunning for Potter and wanted her dead. She left strong implications against the Hogwarts' Headmaster-that he didn't have the purest of intentions for the Potter girl. To sweeten the deal more, Tasha elaborated that Sam would not only gain a new chance at life but have magic too.

The Grim Reaper revealed more about the Potter's life and fate than she would have liked.

Finally after a while, Tasha managed to convince Sam to say yes to the third option. "Okay, so what would happen next?" asked Sam curiously after saying yes.

A man with curly black hair and a mustache materialized on Sam's left. He was holding a large manila folder under his left arm. A large bottle in his other hand. He gave Sam a sharp military salute, before dumping the papers in front of her.

"Well first as we're doing this completely illegally, we'll let you remember this conversation. Though you have to sign these non-disclosure forms." He opened the folder and pointed at the stack of documents inside. "It will prevent you from telling anyone. It will also prevent anyone from extracting the information from you. How it is done will be a different story, one which you will be briefed on later, so don't worry."

"Fine, I will hold you to that." Replied Sam as she read through the form and signed it.

The guy handed Sam the large bottle he was holding. "Drink this and hold tight. A small word of advice-go to Gringotts as soon as you can. They will provide you with significant help." He said with a smile.

Sam downed the bottle's contents with a single gulp.

Her world started to spin. Everything went black.

Tasha looked at Sidney after Sam disappeared. She pulled a big wad of paper from the side, handing one-half of it to him, "And now let's do the most entertaining part of our project! It's paperwork time!"

After a while, Sidney lifted his head from his stack of papers and asked, "Tasha, you've worked here for much longer than I have . Has any reaper ever meddled with the mortal world or any other reality so severely just like we did?"

Tasha stopped writing and looked at him seriously. "As a matter of fact, yes. Last time something like we did happen, the American colonies became independent in the majority of all the realities…"


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: this was betead ****by Philosophize check his stories out they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes****.**

Chapter Two

"_When you are thrown into an unknown situation, gather information and adapt. That's one of the Rainbows' most basic training mottos."_

This motto ran through Sam's, or rather Harriet Rose Potter's, mind now. She closed the taps and retreated slowly and as noiselessly as she could, back to the bed.

As she laid there, she retreated behind her mind's walls. A life fighting criminals and worse had forced her to develop a way on how to keep all of the bad things she had seen or done from affecting her, not only during missions, but even in her personal life. Now she needed to review her "new memories" and so she did.

And so she started to review her new memories.

What she had found could be only being described as a grotesque, horrific parody of a life. Her new life was full of tragedy. When those grim reapers said that Harriet Rose had a shitty life, she braced herself but that description didn't even cover it.

Abused at home, living worse than a slave then attending a magical school that was everything but definitely not the safest place in the world.

Sam had to shake her head mentally. The grim reapers had unwillingly slipped that there was some kind of prophecy hanging around Potter, well now her ass. Some things that they said now started to make more sense.

She remembered the conversation with the Headmaster in "her" first year. And those so-called protections on that stone? They were suspiciously designed to be solved by her and her friends and maybe Neville. Was the stone even real? She now had doubts. The man definitely knew more than he let on, he was like all those politicians that never told everything getting anything out of him was worse than having wisdom teeth pulled out, and the same could be said for his knowledge of the events in the previous school year. She shook her head again and pinched the bridge of her nose. What was the Headmaster's game?

She let her gaze wander till it fell on the ginger boy, Ron, her memory supplied. She frowned when she remembered her first encounter with Ron Weasley and his family. That alone was strange. Why would the Weasleys use a muggle entrance to platform 9 ¾? And they were there on time as well. Why had Ron pretended that he didn't recognize her name at first, until she showed him her scar? Those were her questions about her best friend. Her gaze moved on to the third occupant of the infirmary.

"_Hermione, I owe you a big apology"_ She muttered inwardly. That girl had done her best for Harriet's safety - more than one could ever expect, even if it endangered their friendship. And how did I end here? What happened to Sirius? The last thing she remembered from Harriet's memories was casting the patronus to save her past self. She noticed that the said bushy haired girl started to stir and finally woke up. Judging from the sky color it was something between three or four in the morning. "_Well no time like the present._" she thought.

"Hey," she said softly as she turned her head and leaned closer to Hermione.

Hermione rubbed her eyes and then looked tiredly at her best friend and smiled.

"Hey," she replied softly "How do you feel? " Hermione asked quietly.

"Tired, confused. What happened after I cast that Patronus? I kind of blacked out. Everything after that is a blank." Sam replied doing a quick inventory of not only her new body, but also her new memories.

"That's understandable. The Patronus must have worn you out. It chased off over a hundred Dementors. You must have extremely overpowered the spell. No wonder you didn't remember anything. You were only semi-conscious after that." The girl spoke softly as she tucked the pillow under her side to lie on more comfortably.

"I had to drag you on to Buckbeak and fly to the school, " she said with a shudder.

Sam remembered from Harriet's memories of Hermione's fear of heights.

"We arrived at the room where Sirius was held and I magicked the window to vanish so he could get out and onto Buckbeak. They escaped together after depositing us near here. I dragged you into the hospital wing under your cloak and tucked you in. You were out cold the second you touched the bed. Even Snape's screaming didn't wake you. I was just glad that you held it together for that long and was able to walk. I don't know how it would end if I had to carry you." Hermione finished her explanation, whispering the entire time.

Sam just nodded on the explanation, not doubting that the grim reapers took care of her body before stuffing her in it.

She looked at the bushy haired girl, her respect rising for her. "Hermione…" she began slowly, "Thank you. Thank you for everything. I don't know if I will ever be able to repay you for your bravery. I'm sorry that I hadn't been acting as a friend. I should be after that stupid broom and I will do my very best to remedy that." Sam said meaning every word. The young girl really impressed her.

Hermione blushed. "That's not true…" that was as far as she got before Sam cut her off.

"It is and don't start on saying we're even, because you evened out the score before the end of our first year." Said Sam as she reflected back on Harriet's memories. "So I have to even the score yet, but I'm still tired and you don't look much better, so let's try to catch up on our sleep. We'll talk later, sound good?" said Sam, feeling tired from the whole ordeal.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something but then closed it, "_Since when did Harriet become so insightful?"_ ran through her mind while she suppressed another yawn and decided that Harriet had the right idea. She wanted to comment on that, too, but Harriet had already turned to her side and was out cold.

The morning came too soon if you asked Sam or Hermione. After a brief examination by Madame Pomfrey, she had a long chat with the Headmaster that made Sam even more suspicious of him. Sam pulled an admirable performance and she was quite sure that he didn't suspecting anything was off with Harriet, now Sam.

They were released later, but Ron would be confined at the hospital wing till lunch for further observation.

Hermione had a strange feeling about Harriet. She couldn't put a finger on it, but her friend had changed. She became even more quiet, observant, more alert and evaluating of her surroundings. _"Is she reminding me of my father?, Hermione wondered. He acts in a similar way, sometimes, but that's because he was a Royal Marine and served two combat tours before going back to school as a dentist. Harriet has had some hard experiences, but surely they aren't the same, are they?"_

At the same time Harriet became more enthusiastic about her studies. More excited about every bit of magic. She blamed their nearly fatal date with a horde of Dementors on that.

But there were more changes that Hermione, who was customarily an early riser and usually the first to wake up in their dorm, found one day. When she woke up, Harriet's bed was neatly made and said girl was exercising doing sit-ups and push-ups before she disappeared for what she presumed was a morning jog.

This was repeated daily until the last day of school. Certainly strange behavior for her best friend.

Sam, on the other hand, started to fall back into some of her old habits and started doing morning exercises. To be honest with herself, she noticed that being in a younger body was affecting her mentally. She felt like she lost a little bit of her maturity but she didn't consider this a bad thing, per se. She had been warned of this by the reapers. Her new body would probably affect her and she would be more…. 'teenaged' as her mind dealt and adjusted to a new level of hormones and physical body in general.

On the second day of the rest of her life, she was just returning from her morning jog around the castle, when she noticed something huddled in an alcove. When she approached it, the huddled whatever turned out to be a small blond Ravenclaw girl, all curled up in the alcove sleeping.

Sam briefly considered what to do before she squatted down by the sleeping girl and gently shook her awake.

"Honey, are you alright?" Sam asked gently

The girl focused her grey eyes and simply said. "You're Harriet Potter."

"Yes I am, Honey, what are you doing here?" she asked the owlishly blinking girl.

"The nargles took my wand. They locked me out of my dorm and I can find it."

"_Say what? What is a Nargle…." _Thought Sam, but her thoughts were interrupted as the girl continued, "and my name is not honey, but Luna."

"Okay, _**Luna**_" She couldn't help the slight amusement to color the tone of her voice as she said the girl's name, "What is a nargle and why did they take your wand?"

"Nargles are supposedly little mischievous thieves that most people think were extinct. Daddy and I are working on disproving that."

"_OOOkay that really make things clearer,"_ thought Sam as Luna continued to ramble.

"So I suppose it could be them, but I also cannot exclude the possibility of a strong wrackspurt infestation that clouded someone's judgment..." Luna continued to ramble but Sam's mind started to whirl in a different direction, as several things clicked together.

"_So, if I am understanding things right, then her dorm mates took and hid her wand and locked her out of their dorm, until she finds it? All of this for being a little bit on the weird side?...Wait, wait, wait! What? Did she just say that they are taking her things? So that explains her mismatched shoes… Those bastards!" _Ran through her head.

If Sam knew one thing about herself, she always had a soft spot for strays, and Luna tugged on all of her heartstrings. She was as adorably confused as a kitten after suffering from a severe head concussion. Maybe she woke up all those maternal instincts in Sam, who knows, but Sam immediately resolved herself to help this little waif as much as she could. Although she had a feeling that this new little friendship was destined to be a strange one, and just what the hell were Blibbering Humdingers l anyway?

"But they are…" Sam cut Luna mid-sentence. She became lost in Luna's ramblings about ten minutes ago.

"Sweetie, do you want me to help you to find your wand?" Sam asked softly and watched as the small girl bit her lip chewing on it for a second, obviously doubting Sam/Harriet.

"I suppose," Luna said softly "and my name is Luna, not sweetie."

Sam chuckled as she drew her wand. "Okay, little moon" and before Luna could protest she did a spell that Hermione invented about two weeks ago. That girl was really smart!

"_Deferre!_ Point me to Luna's wand." Sam saw a tiny light issue at the end of her wand, started to lead her and the little bewildered Luna in a particular direction.

It didn't take long before Luna asked, "What was that spell? I never heard about it."

Sam smiled and said, "You wouldn't. It's an invention of my friend Hermione, really smart cookie that one."

Luna was quiet for a second, thinking something over before she asked. "Why are you helping me? I'm the weird one here," Sam looked at Luna for a moment over her shoulder, thinking on how to answer Luna's question, before deciding to adopt the same brutal honesty of the question.

"I know how it feels, believe it or not. I've been there, and because of that I know that you need a friend. I want to help you as I was helped once, plus I'm going to make a new friend. A win-win situation for both of us. "

Luna was stunned by Harriet's words. Did The-Girl-Who-Lived just said to her that she had been bullied? And she wants to be her friend? She managed to weakly ask. "Truly? Be friends with me?"

"Truly. Now… your wand should be… here." Sam said as they stopped before a set of armor. Inside the armored helmet was Luna's wand.

After handing the found wand to Luna, Sam escorted the small blonde to her common room, idly chatting about trivial things. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, they met Cho Chang-one of Luna's main tormentors- right in front of the Ravenclaw common room. Sam quickly guessed from Luna's face and the way the girl clutched her wand on Cho's role in Luna's bullying.

"Potter, you know Loony?" Cho said surprised as she saw Harriet and Luna together.

Sam just uttered "Chang, a word. Luna, wait here," and with that Sam roughly grabbed and hauled a very much-surprised Cho, who even didn't have a chance to put up any kind of struggle, into a nearby broom closet, locking them in.

Luna didn't hear what transpired between the two. She could hear only a hushed one-sided whispering before Harriet roared from inside "AM. I. UNDERSTOOD?" and soon after the closet opened and revealed a smug looking Harriet and a pale and shaken Cho.

What proceeded after Sam grabbed and dragged the confused Ravenclaw seeker into a nearby broom closet was that they had a very deep and meaningful conversation with Cho Chang about Luna. While Sam's new body wasn't that physically imposing, she could counter that particular disadvantage by a vast number of tricks she learned in her life. She explained to Cho that she considered Luna a good friend and that she looked after her friends. She didn't like when someone was hurting them. That pissed her off and Cho wouldn't like Harriet pissed off.

She wasn't _very nice_ when pissed off and she explained what could happen if she caught even a smallest whiff that Luna was still being bullied. She would come and gut Cho and all of the little psychopaths that were Luna's tormentors with a blunt spoon before feeding them to the acromantulas in the Forbidden Forest.

She left a very deep impression in the Ravenclaw seeker (read: she put a fear of god in her) as well as a pair of wet knickers, and not in _that_ more positive way.

The small black-haired, green- eyed, third- year girl scared Cho more than she could imagine, not because of the threats, but from the feeling that Harriet Potter would coldly and efficiently fulfill her threats. The Gryffindor wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep after she was finished killing her and her friends.

Cho was cut from her dark thoughts when she heard Harriet's voice again. "Remember, end of the week or I'll fulfill what I have promised."

Cho trembled under that green-eyed stare promising an unabridged violence against her and all people who might hurt Loony, 'No, Luna' Cho quickly corrected herself and looked around fearing that Harriet could hear her thoughts and turn back ready to kill her.

Sam left Luna with a parting comment to Cho and continued back to Lions' den to get showered and changed.

She nearly skipped in her steps as she headed for breakfast. Another day in a magical school! Sam was having a blast with her new life! Magic was so much fun! She would probably be one of the few students who would love to stay to study magic over the summer, then her thoughts turned south as she headed freshly made up.

The summer arrangements, if nothing changed, would mean she would have to go to those sods she had now the misfortune to be related to. "Wait a second, did I just thought of them as sods… Weird. My new British-ness is rubbing off on me" she thought surprisingly. Considering the stunt she pulled on inflating Marge last summer, she had to think of something to get the upper hand. She had to prevent them from beating the living shit out of her or worse.

What she needed was a way to keep them off her back and discourage them from even thinking about doing something to her. Even with her knowledge of martial arts, she was realistic enough to know that it would take some time till she was in combat form. Without the aid of magic, how could she possibly stand a chance, cornered in a small space against such a brute as Vernon? Certainly not without a gun or a decent blade.

Deep in thought she walked to the main hall, she saw Luna and waved her over to sit next to her and across from Hermione. After introducing the two, she proceeded to select her breakfast mostly consisting of some porridge and fruits, only quirking her eyebrow as she saw Luna build a house from her scrambled eggs and cutting figures from toast, then demolishing both.

They chatted, Hermione and Luna soon engrossed in a discussion about magical animals. The calm of the morning was interrupted by Ron who came and grunted as he sat by them.

"What's Loony doing here?" Luna stiffened and Sam growled. "Her name is Luna, Ronald, and I don't appreciate that you call my friends by derogatory names."

Ron stared at Harriet with an uncomprehending expression as he filled his plate with food and started to shovel it in his mouth, "What crawled in your bum this morning?" He said with a mouthful and then cried indignantly as Sam _evanesce_-ed his plate, "Oi, my food! Crazy girl! What was that for?"

"Ron, a) you've been extremely rude, b) I am not interested in seeing the contents of your mouth and c) the way you eat is disgusting, as if you were starving for several days. You know, there is this thing, it's called _table manners_. Now please, excuse me, since you successfully ruined my appetite, I will go." With that, she threw her spoon into her porridge and with a goodbye to Luna and Hermione, she left table. She made a point in avoiding Ron.

Sam was a bit angry with herself. Her outburst was out-of-left-field for her and she needed to keep her head down. Keep Harriet's shy persona till summer. Her sudden shift in personality needs to be unnoticeable. Making friends with Luna was significant already and threatening several Ravenclaws with gruesome deaths added more to that, but those weren't people who really knew Harriet, so she thought she would be more or less safe on that issue.

Making friends with Luna was more public, no doubt, but the little blonde needed it. Sam had a suspicion that Hermione was by this time suspicious of her behavior, but wouldn't say anything yet. Ugh, she just confused herself with her logic and suspicions.

So she downplayed her outburst as hormones acting up as well as having shorter temper than usual, because of her near death experience to her best friends

The days flew by. The end of the school year was coming closer. Lupin had resigned and revealed that Harriet's father's animagus form was a stag, the whole irony of which wasn't lost on Sam.

The return of Harriet's two magical possessions, her father's invisibility cloak and the Marauder's map, was most welcome.

Still thinking about having a proper solution for her predicament for the coming summer, she nearly tripped over it, or rather him, one early morning, Dobby.

Dobby brought her to a room after she asked him where to get a decent blade. The room was so filled to its huge and airy rafters of various things that it was dizzying. The house-elf snapped his fingers and several daggers appeared at their feet.

Sam/Harriet found about ten daggers, most of them too ornamental and cursed judging from Dobby's reaction. There were only two daggers that seemed usable for her. One of them was an original Fairbairn–Sykes dagger. That stumped her, what on earth was that one doing here? Soon after she explored the room a bit and wondered at the weapons, various shapes and sizes, blades, projectiles. She found the real prize the room held.

A box containing a Browning Hi-Power in 9mm para, complete with a wooden holster, a spare magazine, a set of maintenance tools, a small bottle of gun oil and a box of ammunition. Judging from the inscription in German and a Nazi Adler stamp, it was a Belgian war production for Wehrmacht. She could only guess why it was here, as it was highly improbable that she would find a gun in this place, and even if she would, she'd more likely find some kind of British revolver firearm like an Enfield or a Webley. Certainly not a Belgian semi- automatic pistol.

She carried the box carefully like a newborn baby, quickly checking to see if everything was working. The gun must have been stored under some preservation spells because surprisingly it clicked and worked just fine. It looked as if it was just cleaned yesterday, in fact. Its ammunition was in excellent condition too.

Although she usually preferred larger calibers for her sidearm, this gun was as unique as it got. This would do until she could get her hands on something more normal for her. Then she realized that her gun collection had been left in her original life! A real bummer! She brightened; this was a great reason and an even greater way to start a new one! And the room could be used to create a shooting range to get used to firing a weapon, again.

Dobby was overeager to help her out and she had such an interesting conversation with the house-elf. Hermione would have kittens if she was here, Sam mused amusedly. More importantly, she had gained invaluable ally who would supply her with food during the summer holidays and would keep an eye on her, all the while expecting that this would make her stay with Dursleys much easier.

At least _that_ was solved.

The rest of the week passed without a hitch and without anything worthy of mention. Sam exercised and cast spells every opportunity she got. The only thing that was strange was when she cast a Patronus, its form wasn't a stag anymore.

Now, it was fierce looking wolf.

Then there was the customary Leaving Feast. The house points were given and Sam learned that the Weasleys were planning on going to the Quidditch World Cup finals that summer. They had cordially invited her, or at least that was what Ron told her.

It was time to leave the old castle.

The train ride passed. She managed to get rid of Ron after she started to talk about girl things with Hermione and Luna for only about a minute. He left red-eared. The whole train ride was then spent in nice chit-chat about the plans of both girls for the summer, as well as getting Hermione's number so she could just call her, if she was feeling talkative.

Draco passed their compartment, but his customary visit was short, as he found himself at the end of three wands. He left with his tail between his legs, courtesy of a stinging hex that flew dangerously close to his groin.

When they arrived at King's Cross station, Sam steeled her resolve. Hermione hugged her as well as Luna, saying their goodbyes. Sam observed as Luna skipped into the hands of a garishly dressed man who was probably her father. That neon yellow was really an eyesore. With a huff, she took her luggage and went to meet the people that supposedly were related to her.

She soon found her uncle who had come to pick her up. He barked a command to get her things into the trunk of his car. During the whole ride Sam had a hand on her F–S dagger. She didn't carry a handbag, so after considering her chances, she left her gun in her book bag.

Vernon Dursley was a cruel, simple man, who greatly enjoyed lording it over others. Immensely over his worthless freak of a niece. He had cruel plans for her. She wanted to eat? Then she had to work for it day and night. In his mind, he had prepared it all, and Dudley would join him. It was high time that his sonny learned how to behave in bed so he would have some experience to use with a proper and normal girl in future. Plus, someone had to prepare the freak for that task too. He was looking forward to that.

When they arrived Vernon yelled at her to put her "shit" to her room, before she came down to kitchen to discuss her summer arrangements.

Sam quickly opened her trunk and pulled her Hi-Power, checked if it was loaded. She called softly, "Dobby".

The little house-elf appeared with a soft pop.

"Yes, Miss?" he asked eagerly.

"Please silence the whole ground floor so no one outside can hear what's going on." Knowing that elven magic wouldn't register as underage magic. Sam smirked a dark smile, "show time".

She walked slowly downstairs.

Vernon raised himself from the chair to yell at Harriet when he saw her coming down the stairs and noticed what she was holding in her hand as the girl came closer. His mouth opened, but nothing came out as the freak casually slapped the magazine in, quickly clicked the slide back, chambering the round before leveling the gun at them.

He tried to bluster, "Now see…"

#BLAM#

He didn't finish as a gunshot cut him off. The bullet flew mere millimeters from his face and buried itself in the wall behind him.

"I'm glad that I have your attention, " said Sam coldly. "Now sit down."

"I don't have…" Vernon tried to bluster but Harriet's cold look stopped him. He heard Harriet shout, "I said SIT!" Totally cowering him and so he sat.

Dudley and Petunia obeyed without hesitation, too frightened of what might happen. The tables turned suddenly.

Sam walked around them and sat across from them, her hand firmly on the gun resting on the table, easily pointed at them.

"Now, here are the rules, you will leave me alone and I won't kill you."

"You wouldn't have guts…" Vernon tried to bluster.

#BLAM#

The bullet, this time, grazed Vernon's shoulder leaving a relatively small wound.

Petunia screamed and Dudley's color matched with the walls.

"AHHH!" Vernon screamed, shakingly clutching the grazing wound.

Sam on her part was quite content with herself only few practices down on her and she made this precise shot actually it was pretty impressive.

"Now, now, Vernon I didn't give you a turn to speak. And for the record, you wouldn't be first person I have killed consciously. The first one was, when I was eleven, I melted his face clean off," said Sam without any change in tone and with only mild disinterest in her eyes.

The Dursleys stared at her, horrified. Payback's one mean bitch, isn't she?

"Now listen, I am forced to stay here with you, but it would be very easy for me to kill you all and stage it as a self defense. After all, I have several wonderful examples of your past loving care with a few artfully placed injuries. Who wouldn't believe that an abused girl, attending an exclusive private school, and who had just been sexually assaulted, gunning down the three perpetrators of said abuse and attack, killed by the weapon they were threatening the victim with? Still with me?" Sam smiled malevolently. She watched as her threats started sinking into their dense heads, then continued. "Or, I could just kill you now and make your bodies disappear. Admittedly, I wouldn't do the magical vanishing act of your bodies, but I have enough cash to pay somebody to do it for me, _without any questions asked_." She made a pause as she looked at her shaking relatives.

"Now all of this means more work for me, but I can be dissuaded from my homicidal intentions. How?" she said as she saw that Dursleys were too scared to ask.

"It's easy, really." She drawled. "You will stay out of my way. You will leave me alone. No chores. No cooking. Minimal interaction, and I might, with the strong emphasis on MIGHT forget on my homicidal urges. Deal?" seeing them just shake for a bit before Vernon gave a single nod. " Good. Now I will go to my room." She said as she stood from her seat and headed upstairs. She stopped in the kitchen door as she half-turned and said in an offhand manner.

"Oh, before I forget." The Dursleys tensed again.

"This is Dobby." Dobby popped before her. "He is my house elf. His magic is undetectable by the Ministry." On cue, Dobby snapped his fingers as several pieces of cutlery started to float in the air menacingly pointed to the Dursleys on the table.

"See, no letters coming in? Didn't you notice anything amiss? Nobody heard the shots fired here. " She grinned at them as they flinched.

"He will be always around, even if you don't see him. He will be watching from the shadows. He's very loyal to me, almost fanatically. He would be very displeased if you had any funny ideas, like ganging up on me when I am sleeping. Wouldn't you, Dobby?"

Dobby gave a stiff nod, glaring very suspicious at the Dursleys.

"Youse be warned! Dobby is a good house elf, watch Harriet Potter from bad muggles. And if the muggles try something…." He finished with slow drag of his thin finger across his neck. _"Damn, I am good! He was even impressive!" _Sam mentally gave herself pat on shoulder. She had walked Dobby through with her plan, suggesting on how he should behave.

With a final glare, she turned and threw over her shoulder, "See you around." She walked away to her room.

Once she closed the door, she looked around the small room and sighed. That was done! She hoped it was enough to scare them so much they would truly leave her alone. She really didn't want to kill them, she had other plans for them in her mind.

Now, for the matter of her room.

She looked at the broken stuff thrown here by Dudley, rickety bed, ratty mattress, threadbare blankets and pillow. The table she used as writing one with a broken bat for a leg. The kitchen chair without its backrest. The list went on and on.

"_Okay, that wouldn't do." _she thought "Dob…" she started, but Dobby appeared eagerly in front of her.

"…by could you please come over here?" she mumbled the rest of her sentence.

"Could you at least, like wait till I finish calling you?" She said a little wearily but gently so as not to offend the house-elf.

Dobby looked uncomprehendingly on her before saying.. "Dobby not wanting to come late when Harriet Potter calls."

"How can you come late? When you come before I call… You know what never mind." That argument wasn't going anywhere. With a shake of her head, she motioned around the room.

"Dobby I'm sorry to bother you, but could you do something about this room?"

Dobby looked around and snapped his fingers. All the useless clutter boxed themselves, the boxes stacked neatly into a corner. The bed repaired itself as well as table, the chair. The mattress looked as if it were new. The locks on the windows disappeared.

Sam blinked. This was more than she expected. The room now looked livable, even if not thoroughly comfortable.

"This is… thank you Dobby." She said as she hugged the elf who blushed fiercely and mumbled quietly, "youse welcome," before popping away.

Sam started to unpack her things, mentally cataloguing what she wanted to do.

First thing's first. She needed a new wardrobe. Dudley's and Petunia's cast offs were out of the question, so a shopping trip was in the stars as well as a few things to do. So tomorrow morning, a Gringotts visit was scheduled.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

**AN: 1 Galleon = £50 the time setting is in 2004. This was betead ****by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes****.**

The next morning came and Sam was full of expectations for what the day will bring, as she prepared for it. After her morning exercise and run, she had a hearty breakfast provided by Dobby.

She was still surprised a bit what the little elf could do and his willingness to do it with unwavering loyalty to her. The fact that he seemingly hasn't noticed that there was something different with her still surprised her. Those Grim reapers sure did a good job.

She got dressed in the best cast offs she had and a school robe folded over her hand to better blend in later in Diagon Alley and walked from the house. After she thought she was out of sight, she pulled her wand and summoned the Knight bus. The purple triple-decker appeared and with a bang. She greeted the fare collector Stanley...something weird...Shunpike? She wasn't sure and he greeted her too, using the name she gave him year ago, Fay. He idly asked, where she wanted to go and how summer was treating her.

Sam briefly wondered why he didn't recognize her, but decided not to question her good fortune. That was good news. And after giving him the fare for Leaky Cauldron, she managed to get into seat before the bus shot with a bang, burying her deep into the seat, and after a fifteen minutes of tossing at high speeds, the bus stopped in front of leaky Cauldron.

She spilled out with several others and silently vowed that next time she would either ask Dobby or borrow one of Vernon's cars. Despite being adrenaline junkie, that was just plain uncomfortable.

With grumble she trotted to Gringotts. One of the grim reapers, Sidney, advised her that she should visit them and she so far saw no point in not heeding that advice. After all, she remembered the amount of money she had in her vault from her previous visits and she was curious from where the finances for her trust vault came from and what other services the Gringotts offered.

Sadly, what little information on goblins she could find in her books only dealt with their rebellions, so this was going to be interesting.

Her visit proved to be educational. As it turned out when she asked she was taken directly to the Potter account manager Smashfist.

The Potter family, while not extremely wealthy, wasn't exactly poor either, not by any stretch of imagination. The best term would probably be "reasonably wealthy." Sam could live probably quite comfortably for rest of her life, and while the family didn't hold any real power in Wizarding world, like seats in Wizengamot or a lordship, it still held a certain status.

What was interesting to learn was that the Potters were a really old pureblood family and that was a why it was so shocking that James married muggleborn, as she had been the first muggleborn in the family in several centuries.

Smashfist then introduced Sam to her family's current holdings, which were quite surprisingly centered in muggle word. Apparently, it was thanks to Lily who moved the investments there and they were making profitable revenue. Making much more than ever before. When he was speaking about her mother his eyes gained far away look and he admitted that Lily had be a goblin in previous life and that he held her in high esteem for her absolute ruthlessness in financial matters. Smashfist's tone when speaking about Lily made it clear that he was very fond of her. And while he couldn't give Sam the access family vaults till she was of age, Smashfist explained that as the last member and a heir of the family, she had a partial control over her portfolio. This effectively meant that while she couldn't have any direct control over her family finances, she could pass suggestions to the account manager who would make the final decisions.

So they reviewed her family's financial information and Smashfist sent a message to bring any contracts as they came to conclusion that a complete audit was necessary due to a number of irregularities. He didn't like there was a regular payment to the account of one Vernon Dursley of 300 pounds every month, labeled as an expenses for Harriet's needs. When Sam confirmed that she had been living there and not in exactly pleasant conditions, he became agitated a bit. He had been there when the late Potters were writing their last will and, while Dumbledore sealed it, Smashfist still knew the contents. He specifically remembered that it forbade of Dursleys from ever taking care of Harriet. He suddenly had a bad suspicion and so he asked, if Harriet would be willing, that she be checked out by a discreet healer for any long-term curses and potions while he gathered all materials he needed.

Sam agreed to the idea, as a visit with a discreet healer was in her list anyway.

The healer was an older gentleman who did several tests and, after last one performed, he was frowning heavily. He called a surly goblin and they started discuss the results his tests had produced.

Sam was sure that he found something he didn't like at all. So with a "What's up doc?" she drew his attention back to herself. His grunt, "No, I will not give you any carrots, young lady," amused Sam a lot.

All in all, the good "doc" found traces of old physical abuse, which alone sent him into fits, traces of phoenix tears and basilisk venom, which found him weak at his knees and, after Sam explanation from her and witches oath that it was true, he went green around the gills. A basilisk had been at Hogwarts and he had a grandkid there! He also found long term exposure to a low level love potion and a potion that restricted cognitive abilities as well as traces of a broken 40% block of her magic and, finally, a tracking charm tied to her blood. They couldn't discover who cast the charms, but they could discover that the last one was tied to a device.

After a brief discussion, she came with an appropriate solution. She argued that if they called DMLE to investigate who had her potioned and charmed, it would tip off the one who did it and, if her suspicious was right about who was behind it, then that person would have it swept under rug faster than saying Lemon drop. So Sam managed to convince them to file everything for later as evidence, but for now not to alert authorities.

For now they would simply keep gathering evidence.

They decided that they would purge her of the potions and from the samples from her they would make a specialized immunization potion for her that would render further potions useless on her for a year.

They speculated that Harriet's strong reaction to dementors had broken the block when she cast that overpowered patronus to chase them away and, moreover, that the whole event greatly weakened the potions affecting her. Sam didn't try to tell them otherwise, as she had a more than good idea what was behind that breaking of the potions and charms that had been on her.

With the tracking charm, Sam suggested if it was possible to move the sample of her blood to a pedant and then cleanse her of the charm so she could use the pedant to fool anybody who was tracking her into thinking that she was still tracked, she could use this.

The healer also provided her with a prescription for a specialized nutrition potion that would speed up her getting into shape. It required the user to exercise regularly for month, otherwise all the gained muscle mass would recede. This was something that purebloods flatly refused to do when they used the potion, which was fine by her as her own regime was much tougher than the potion required.

So, with her check up done, she was returned to Smashfist who was positively fuming. (It is hard to tell with Goblins, as their default expression was surly.) Smashfist did some digging and he was probably kicking himself for not noticing it sooner. Dumbledore had tried multiple times to enter main Potter vault, but he had been denied access every time. While Potters weren't wealthiest of the families they had very nice collection of old magical manuscripts and Dumbles apparently wanted to get and their fortune, while not greatest, would significantly boost Dumbles' retirement fund.

But what was really angering Smashfist was that he found out that Dumbles had long time ago requested a copy of a key to Harriet's trust vault and had been cleaning it out annually ever since she started Hogwarts. And Smashfist wasn't finished with his discoveries. First, there was a standing Marriage Contract between Harriet and Ronald Weasley. The contract was a disgusting piece of parchment for any sentient being, as it allowed love and obedience potions, making Harriet nearly slave. From the date on it, it had been written mere hours after Harriet's parents died. Sam was surprised by the audacity of the old man and her thoughts turned dark and violent trying to come up with a perfect murder, but next Smashfists words surprised her.

"Luckily for you it can be invalided in no time."

"I beg your pardon?" Sam asked, bewildered didn't he said that everything that parchment stated was technically legal?

"It is not legal, check the date it was signed." Said Smashfist with a goblin version of a grin. Although it looked like a snarl, his amused tone of voice spoke otherwise.

Sam looked at the date. It was dated to the day right after Halloween and…

"He wasn't my Guardian at the time this was signed was he?"

"Yes," The Goblin grinned. "He became your magical guardian day later."

Sam released breath of relief before she frowned. "And what stops him from making new one?" she asked and internally started to think "_Back to planning perfect murder then. What's the old man's game anyway, apart from making me bride/slash slave to densest idiot in school, well maybe the second densest, can't forgot Draco."_

The goblin looked from his parchments smiled and replied. "According to our files, which are copies of files produced by the Ministry of Magic," how he said _the Ministry of magic_ told of his absolute disgust with said organisation, "your magical guardian is one Sirius Black."

At Sam's "Say what?" he elaborated.

"Sirius Black, although wanted by Ministry, is your legal Magical Guardian. His claim for it was not invalidated by his imprisonment, as he didn't go through a trial and therefore he never was never officially stripped of the position. He just couldn't claim it before, but that changed yesterday, as he claimed it and it was verified by none other than current Chief of Wizengamot Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore. Didn't you get any notices about that?"

"No I...wait." Sam said with surprise, before she rummaged through her pockets and pulled a Hogsmeade slip signed by Sirius, which she got yesterday during the train ride. She then revealed to Smashfist everything that happened with Sirius, Peter and how the Minister reacted to that.

Smashfist was quiet for a few seconds before he said, "Interesting, I will have to take this to Goblin council, but back to the matter at hand. Yes, that sealed his claim as it was accepted, by not only Headmaster, but also Chief of Wizengamot. And do you know the best part?"

"No," but she had a feeling that, if she understood anything about the goblins, that they loved to poke wizards with their own laws. "Well apart of the fact seeing Dumbles literally shooting himself in the leg."

"That too, but his claim cannot be rescinded, as his claim must be rescinded by Wizengamot with Sirius Black present in front of it, but that cannot come to be, as there is the kiss on sight order, so he cannot be present to face the tribunal. Only if the order is lifted can he stand before the tribunal for removal of that guardianship and as there is no record of him ever being convicted, then they will have to prove he was guilty in a trial, but that would prove that he had been imprisoned illegally and I don't think that esteemed minister would allow him to stand trial as the revealed truth would make him look bad. "

"So Catch 22, huh" At seeing a look that Sam interpreted as confusion on Goblins face. She elaborated. "That means paradox, it was coined by Joseph Heller, muggle book writer. Catch 22 says that to be released on grounds of being insane you have to come to physician, healer, and tell him that you think that you are insane, but saying that, the physician has to rule it, as a product of a rational mind, ergo he cannot release you on grounds of being insane."

"Yes it is the same type of situation," said Smashfist. "There is one more thing I wanted to talk with you. As I mentioned before, Dumbledore has been siphoning money from your trust vault. As you might know it is refilled at the end of every June to hold 500 Galleons, but for last two years it was emptied the day before it was refilled. And I suspect it his way of getting the money from the Potter vault.

Sam shook her head as she did the math in her head and whistled mentally "_that's nearly 75,000 quid."_

"It was very subtle. I suspect that this way he could siphon a lot of your family's finances, given enough time. Luckily he only started to do this after you began attending Hogwarts and so far he has not caused too much damage. The finances lost only encompass part of the moneys made from your mother's investments. Anyway, I made sure that all monies were retrieved with interest and forwarded everything to your trust vault. With all discretion."

He then elaborated as he saw Sam taking breath to speak. "Do not worry young miss, Mister Dumbledore has been a thorn in the side for all goblins for a long time. He will not know of your visit from us, nor will he learn anything about the proceedings, which happened here. While we did confiscate from his accounts the money he had taken from you, he will not know that it was done in your name, or even that it was confiscated as such. Instead, we will just simply exaggerate the amount of monies he lost in one of his not-so-wise investments." The grin was predatory. Sam released the breath she was holding and said, "However, if we don't want to give away our game, we cannot retrieve his copy of key to your trust vault, but I am sure you can get around this."

"We certainly wouldn't want that, but I have idea how and could I have part of that money in British Pounds?"

"Yes, how much?" Asked Smashfist, pulling out an checkbook.

"My trust vault now holds about over 1,700 galleons instead of 500, right?" At his nod and specified "1,732 galleons," she then continued "Then I would like to have 1,000 galleons converted into British pounds.

"It will be done."

Sam stood and said, "Thank you Master Accountant Smashfist for your time and invaluable advice. It was pleasure doing business with you."

He gave a stiff nod and, after a firm handshake, he promised her that the converted moneys will be waiting for her and gave her an moleskin bag on the house. After she returned he waved to her. Sam headed to Goblins carts and immediately after she entered the cart Sam asked if it was truth that there was one speed only, and if they could go any faster. The goblin conductor just grinned and pulled a lever, causing the cart to move from fast, right over fucking fast, and into ludicrously fast in a manner of seconds. Six Flags could go stuff itself with their wildest roller coasters, they were kiddie rides compared to this.

And after two extremely wild cart rides and exhilarated Sam tipped the surprised Goblin conductor whole galleon for the experience. The goblin nearly bowed to her. So after a stop by cashier, she loaded 50,000 pounds into her moleskin bag where they joined 731 galleons 17 sickles and 26 knuts and muggle ID proclaiming that she was of age - another gift from Smashfist, that guy thought of everything. One satisfied adrenaline junkie left the Gringotts and, after few stops of buying potion supplies, books, new robes and multi compartmental trunk with a nearly paranoid security, in Diagon Alley's shops, she headed into shopping heart of London.

Shortly after (the shortly depends on how you look at it - for male it would have been eternity, for female it was a just quick shopping spree) she bought herself a nice sized wardrobe for all occasions.

Dobby proved to be invaluable as he was taking her purchases back to Privet Drive so she didn't have to drag all those bags with her. After each stop, she ducked into some quiet place where Dobby would pop and take her purchases to her temporary home.

One of her stops was by an optometrist to get her eyes checked out and to find out if she could wear contacts, which she to her pleasant surprise she could, so then she headed to optician to obtain new nice rimless glasses and several pairs of contacts as well as the necessary accessories.

Her last stop of that day was little bit surprising it was a tattoo parlor, she had a few tattoos in her previous life and she saw no reason for not having one. And she wanted something permanent that could help her remembering her old life.

She had a clear idea what she wanted inked and the displayed pieces of the tattoo artist were really looking great. And so she started talking with the tatter Mick about her tattoo she was no artist, but she did have very decent idea of what she wanted. A lioness holding a shield in its opened maw on her shoulder and on that shield was the logo of Rainbow Six with their unofficial motto in a banner under it. _Vigilo Confido_, which meant : _We are Watchful, We are Necessary_. For their organization, it fit. After two hours of sketching and haggling, they were in agreement and Mick started inking her shoulder for the next hour and half and then they had scheduled another two hour long visit for the next week.

Sam was content with the job Mick was doing.

The next three weeks passed by in a routine. Physical training, learning on how to be teenaged witch, studying, with the two visits to get her tattoo done. That coupled with a number of letters between her and her friends and an occasional call to Hermione. With her last visit in London, she took a brief stop in Diagon Alley to pick up her new trunk and noticed an interesting shop.

It was an music shop which sold musical instruments. From the looks of it, it was more than bit dusty. Sam could tell that magicals weren't very musical folk. She entered it and was hit by an old memory that brought a smile to her face.

In her previous life, when she was six, she wanted to learn to play guitar. Her mother agreed only on the condition that she also learned how to play piano. As it turned out, the piano teacher got two students instead of one, back then. She remembered fondly as both she and her mother were sitting by the piano and both were practicing scales…

Sam shook her head and started examining at pianos there, but none of them looked in a good shape or they were charmed to play only by themselves.

She browsed through the store for a while before she found something that caught her eye. It was an guitar. It resembled those old resonator steel body guitars with a sculpted dragon into its head. Sam really liked it and then she found out it could change sounds from classical guitar to resonator to electric one. The price for this piece was corresponding and with a bit of haggling she paid a few sickle shy of 100 Galleons for an enchanted guitar and case. In Sam's opinion it was money well spent.

Sam went to hairdressers to get something to do with her hair, but apart of a heavy-duty hair gel there was not much to tame it. Well apart from shaving it completely, but that was something she didn't want to do.

When she returned with her guitar under her arm. She caught Petunia staring, but her relative, she wouldn't call them anything else dared to say anything to her about her new clothes and things or where she got money for it. Mainly and that sentiment was shared in the Dursleys household was that her answer would be in lines like for killing people or something in that spirit. They were scared of their niece and how she changed. Sam was starting to try to figure out how she should deal with them. She had no illusions about them and knew that Vernon was a bad man. She knew that it would be just a matter of time till he convinced himself and became bold enough to try something stupid, she thought. She really didn't feel like trying to hide his body and erasing all evidence of a crime. Her daily regime since the day she brought it to her temporary residence included a hour for guitar playing, her fingers were tragically not used to play on anything, pity that there was no good piano anywhere.

She also started to sniff around on where she could get some ordnance. She briefly entertained the idea of raiding a military facility, but considering the risks, she rejected that idea.

Luck was on her side one day, as when she was coming empty on that matter, she stumbled on a gold mine from one of the seedier London bars in Brixton.

A black man wearing several gold chains approached her, saying that he had some great stuff and if would she be interested? Sam/Harriet initially said no, but she asked if he knew where to get some heat.

He at first refused to say anything, but a twenty quid and a knife on his family jewels with an assurance that his pair would make a nice purse finally got him talking about a not-so-abandoned port house from where Boris "the Blade or bullet-dodger" Yurinov was conducting his arms dealing business.

With a very satisfied smile she left the alley.

The visit to a Russian arms dealer was a fruitful one, as Sam now had a veritable arsenal for every occasion, including enough munitions for a small war. Although some of the guns bought were much more for making a "good" first impression than their usability in combat or collectability. She visited the trunk dealer and had him add another hidden compartment with all possible ways of detection keyed to her by her magic. This was where she stored her new "toys".

The time flew by. Her birthday came and went, she received several cakes from her friends and family and the bird that brought a cake from Sirius was a curious one. It was tropical, but from where? She didn't touch the cake from Ron and the Weasleys; instead she took a sample for later analysis and asked Dobby to store it. Ron's note accompanying the cake could be labeled as a study of me-isms. It was actually pretty boring, the boy only wrote about himself.

Sam exchanged a number of letters with Hermione and Luna. Luna's letters were less frequent lately than she would like, but Luna was in Sweden on an expedition with her dad.

The letters with her two friends had another welcome side effect, apart from breaking the boredom of routine, as they gave her an direct although distant witness of her whole personality shift.

She also learned interesting fact. Hermione's father was a Royal Marine before he returned to school to become dentist. That alone could be useful for her. He could give her points of where to go to get military back up.

All things considered, Sam thought as she did another scale on her guitar to get her fingers moving over strings, her life was getting better and better from all she could gather so far. Bumblebee man had a lot less say about her life, the connection to Weasleys and that contract still stunk with future troubles, but she was relatively sure that any new contract was unlikely to happen. Question was, who from Weasleys were onto his plots against her?

She also did a bit of research on Bumblebee man - good grief why couldn't have magicals use computers - but what her search yielded was surprisingly very little on the old manipulating man. There were only a few accomplishments, the defeat of Grindelwald and rumors that he had lead some kind of order against Moldyshorty.

She found nearly nothing on his background, only that he was from an old family and that he had a brother. On that front she didn't have much progress or on unraveling why the old man was so interested in her and plotted against her.

Moldyshorty was easy to figure out, he was just a power hungry homicidal psychopath - nothing new under the sun, although him having magic was making him more irritating to kill and his continual survival was bizarre. "_But maybe, if I called the Ghostbusters, they might solve that for me. Snort. Now that would be fun. And the mayhem connected with them. Pity they aren't real."_ She sighed as she switched to another scale. From how magicals tended to disdain anything made from muggles, she knew she at least had that as an advantage, at least combat-wise, and that was good in her books.

"_That fifty cal. sniper rifle was a good investment_", she thought as in her life before this she had held unofficial record on the long ranged kill over nearly 2000 yards.

"_With magic I could make a killing as assassin. Magical sniper, hmm nah that would be copyrighted name. I should have nabbed those old keys, it wasn't a piano by any stretch, but it would help me with finger dexterity."_

She mused then she heard some commotion from downstairs _"What's with the racket downstairs?" _brief glance at clock it showed that it was time when postman normally delivered afternoon mail.

"_Huh, what's got that bugger's knickers in a twist,"_ she wondered, her thoughts derailed for a second for her newly acquired britishness, as she heard as Vernon slam the door shut and start to stomp up. Sam ended the scale with a sad blues style trill as the door to her room was opened by Vernon who was red in his face. In his hand she spied an envelope with a ridiculous amount of stamps.

He opened his mouth but then his eyes ended on the table next to Harriet, where a disassembled HK G36 lay. Sam had been tinkering with removing the big carry handle/sights and replacing it with Picatinny rails on the forend and receiver. It gave a Vernon a stop and Sam enough time to pull a Glock 22 and aim it at him. Vernon was transfixed by the rifle on the table. The cold voice and sharp click made him remember, who he had to deal with.

"Vernon, let's say that your barging here doesn't help me to forget my homicidal urges against you, quite the contrary, in fact. Consider your next words very carefully, or you might just acquire an acute case of poisoning…lead poisoning. I hear it's a painful way to go." Vernon paled to an even whiter shade and shakily presented the envelope.

"For me? Well, how thoughtful of you for bringing it here, thank you. Place it on the bed." Vernon all but threw the envelope on the bed his tirade all but forgotten.

"Now get out before my trigger finger gets… twitchy." The last word was breathed huskily and scarred Vernon greatly, as he backed from the room as fast as his feet could take him.

With a sigh, Sam stood up and locked the door. Vernon was nothing more than a coward and small-minded, cruel bigot. With any advantage he was just an asslicker nothing more, but if had any chance of gaining an upper hand or power over someone, he could be dangerous. It was high time to get to work on getting rid of her family.

"_Hmm, I have to look into Vernon more, his type of people are all about uniformity nothing original, soo, if I were a small minded bigot, where would I hide things that I wouldn't want the police to find."_ She grinned when it hit her. _"Basement it is, we shall see what is mister Dursley hiding there and even a nice anonymous tip for the local constabulary might be in order, too."_

With a smile she opened the letter, it was from Weasleys, but she could guessed that from the amount of stamps on it. She opened it and it revealed that Weasleys will be coming for her day from tomorrow.

That would be enough time to set Vernon up. She would see to that.

She went and checked her potion supplies and mainly to see, if she had enough of the immunization potion. She vividly remembered how Molly was talking how she got her husband through potions. And she held no illusions that Molly wouldn't help her son to get his prize early. She would have to be careful there. Although it was only for a week there before they headed to Hogwarts.

She waited till everyone was asleep and then she sneaked into basement and she started to search.

The search didn't take very long because in the second cabinet she found her prize under a false bottom of the old wardrobe drawer. She took care that nothing looked disturbed and she didn't leave a fingerprints and she headed to her room where she sat and started to look through the book. As it turned out, it was a detailed account book. Vernon, bless his little black heart, was recording everything, even notes for himself of what to do. So Sam read how Vernon was siphoning money from Grunnings, how he did his tax evasion and whom he bribed.

Several entries were labeled as for Superintendent Smith and his services. Sam would eat her shoes if he wasn't an old schoolmate of Vernon, but the question remained, what were those payments for? Now that would be tricky to tell, as there was nothing more written here except for his invaluable services. And that could be anything from bribes for to blackmail for being quiet. To be honest, she hadn't had even the foggiest idea, the possibilities were endless, but judging from the amount it was something big.

She had a package to prepare and send it to Scotland Yard without any evidence that it would link this to her. She took the time and damaged the window to the basement so nobody would suspect that it was taken from inside.

The next day Sam did as she planned and after small run around for getting what she needed, she sent anonymous package to Scotland Yard which would guarantee that would be untraceable to her and looked like it was done by experienced police officer, which she used to be. Neatly bagged with a short printed note telling the boys in blue that this book should interest them. They should have fun with it.

The rest of the day she spent cleaning her room, trying not to leave anything suspicious behind. If she had her way, she would spend next summer with her godfather or on her own. She also sent Hedwig with a letter for the Weasley patriarch and told her avian friend to wait at the Burrow for her.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Chapter Four

The morning of the day that the Weasleys were coming by to pick her up arrived, and to be honest Sam was unsure how to exactly feel about it. On the one hand, she had a lot of fond memories of time spent with the certain members of the Weasley family, but on the other hand, she dreaded what the following week with Weasleys would bring.

She had a feeling like that she would be dancing in minefield, if she didn't want to tip her hand and let them know that she knew about the marriage contract. But somehow, she had a feeling that this morning was going to provide something surprising. She didn't know what exactly, but she tried to be ready.

She checked her room several times to ensure nothing that held any value to her was left behind and she made sure that the room was spotless. She didn't want to leave anything for the police. She was relatively sure she wouldn't step into this house ever again.

She again checked her appearance, which was a sensible and practical outfit consisting of good fitting jeans and simple black tee proclaiming that My SOUL WAS REMOVED TO MAKE ROOM FOR ALL THIS SARCASM emblazoned over her chest. Her beige jacket was thrown over her trunk and on her head was perched a black beat hat like the one Carlos Santana wears with a one of Hedwig's feather behinds its bowknot on its left side.

It was ten am Weasleys and were due in the next hour. Not having anything better to do, Sam sat on her trunk pulled her guitar from its hard case and started to quietly play blues tunes before setting on a blue jeans blues by Billy F. Gibbons.

She went through several tunes trying to be quiet, she knew not what would the day bring, but Sam tried to stay positive. At very least she would see Hermione and Luna. Back in her mind she started to wonder how Mr Weasley would come and collect her from here. She was still confused how the man, who worked as a head of misuses of muggle items and had obvious interest in non magical technology, could be so oblivious about the actual non magical word and was acting as if had actually no experience with it. It was strange. She sincerely hoped that he wouldn't do something stupid like hooking this house small fireplace to floo network and instead he would borrow a ministry car or apparate them out.

As soon as this line of thought flashed her head, there could be heard noise coming from the living as Sam suddenly stopped playing and groaned loudly. _"Wizards and logic, how could I forget? I better should go and get the planks that are boarding the fireplace out."_ She didn't get far - she had just placed her guitar in its case and was in the middle of stairs, when she heard a whoosh and muffled curses that came from fireplace.

She let out another groan and muttered, "Good idea, but it came late." The single voice quickly became two and then four. "Oh great," Sam muttered as she saw that poor excuses for relatives that were in the living room looking with horror at their perfect normal fireplace.

"Mr Weasley, I'll get a crowbar and…" He didn't hear her as she could hear muffled "Stand back" which was followed by a loud boom and the fake fireplace exploded.

"...and get you out in a jiffy. Nevermind" She mumbled as she eyed the destruction of the previously spotless room. Petunia just shrieked from the couch, and Vernon was changing colours faster than was probably healthy, but one look from Sam beat him into submission, and Dudley was rather unsuccessfully trying to become one with the wall with his hands trying cover his posterior. Sam felt as her left eye twitched a little.

"_As it seems like this Wizzardkind is like nomixy with logic_." Sam thought as she remembered one of her old college friend from California and how would she describe the current situation.

"Hello Mr Weasley, Ronald, Hell Carrots. I'll go and get my things," she said with a sigh. This was getting and better by the minute. Sam had a feeling that this was going to be a long day. She felt bit unnerved by the Ron's uncomprehending stare on her. Truth to be told, she went from a scrawny girl into athletic young woman, but she wasn't wearing anything that could be considered outrageous or indiscreet even by the wizarding standards. The tee she had on didn't even show midriff (with a six-pack she would otherwise have proudly showed) or any hint of cleavage. She turned on the spot and walked to her room, picking her guitar case and placing into her trunk. Throwing the jacket over her arm and perching the hat on her head, she lifted her trunk and walked out of her room where she found the twins waiting for her.

"Hello, Harrikins, when Mione said…" started one.

"…you had changed, you really changed," finished the second as the first curtly offered her to take her trunk.

"Boys, yes, and thank you," she said with a slight smile as she handed her trunk over, and the twin let off a surprised huff.

"Do be careful boys, it is rather heavy," she said airily, as she smirked as the one twin struggled with her heavy luggage and the second lent a hand. She smiled and pulled a handkerchief and quickly wiped the door handle of any prints she could leave there and closed the door. It was another part of her ruse. She left the room she was supposedly residing in in a nearly absolutely state of cleanness, as if somebody tried to hide that she was living in it or that something had happened in this room.

Downstairs she noted that Mr. Weasley had fixed the room...somewhat. The electric fireplace was done for, as the old one looked to be used. And now was dangerously close to start poking with his wand to the TV. _"Probably to find out where those tiny muggles go,"_ Sam thought with a silent snort.

"Mr. Weasley shall we go?" she said, trying to hide her annoyance. The older man nodded and asked.

"Very well, it was my pleasure to meet you, It is pity we didn't have time to speak about this televisionary thing. Harriet do you remember how to floo?" After Harriet's nod he said.

"Excellent. Don't forget to say, Burrow nice and clearly. So after you say your goodbyes shall we go. Boys say your goodbyes." The Weasley boys murmured their byes and the disappeared in the flames, twins carrying Sam's trunk.

"Okay, Aunt, Uncle, cousin, see you around," she said with faux cheerful smile, but what Mr Weasleys didn't see was that the sharklike grin Sam gave her relatives.

With that said, she turned on her heel and took the pinch of floo powder the offered by Mr. Weasley. She threw it into the fireplace and with a cry of "Burrow" she stepped into the flames...

...and exited the Burrow's fireplace with a poise and grace of a thrown sack of potatoes, falling flat on her face. Luckily she didn't put on her hat, as it would certainly be flat right now.

Sam picked herself up and dusted herself off, giving a death glares to the snickering twins. She would have her revenge in due time.

Sam cordially greeted Miss Weasley, who was scowling at Sam's new looks disapprovingly, but surprisingly held herself and only a commented that these muggles are corrupting her, and that she will be bunking with Hermione and Ginny. Sam ignored this, as she saw someone entering the room. Sam's face lit up as she saw who was it.

"Hey Mia, long time, no see," she greeted with a smile as she hugged her friend. In one of their longer phone calls Sam decided to shorten Hermione on Mia and in the sense of fairness she insisted to be called Ri.

"Hey, Ri." Hermione was stunned by the fact Harriet initiated physical contact. During her letters and phone calls, she had witnessed how Harriet started to change. How her friend became bolder and more independent. But this was the final proof of how much had her friend really changed in the last weeks.

She barely could believe it and the physical change was visible too. Gone was the shy scrawny girl. Now, while still not very tall, her friend looked healthy fit and lean. The biggest change, aside from being in a fitting clothes, were new glasses and what made Hermione a little bit jealous was the fact that Harriet's hair looked straight and was neatly slicked into loose ponytail.

"You look good, I love what did to your hair."

Sam gave a bark of laughter as she gave Hermione one armed hug.

"Ahh young grasshopper, t'was easy. I found a old Louisiana voodoo spell for taming of wild snakes, surprisingly it works on wild hair too."

"You're kidding," Hermione said, disbelief coloring her voice.

"I kid you not," Sam said with a grin as she followed struggling twins.

"Yes you do."

"I am not."

The argument continued good part of an hour. The rest of the day went on without any more problems. Sam was glad for the immunization potion she took two days ago. She had a feeling that Mrs Weasley would soon be feeding her potions .

The evening came and it found out Sam sitting in the orchard with her guitar surrounded by twins, Ginny, Hermione, and Luna who had come for a visit. Mrs. Weasley remarked that the thing Sam was holding was inappropriate for young lady to do, and she wouldn't have it in her house, to which Sam responded that it is good she didn't plan to play in the house anyway and walked out followed Twins, Ginny, Hermione, and Luna who came over. Sam pointedly ignored the fuming Mrs. Weasley. What was more worrying was the jealousy-filled looks Ron was sending her. She had discreetly asked Dobby to keep an eye on her trunk.

The group settled under the apple tree and Sam started to play some well-known tunes. With magical raised she could be playing indie tunes still for magicals it was a magical journey into musical words and for Sam it yielded a welcome surprise coming from Hermione, as she proved to have very nice singing voice - leagues better than Sam had. In her previous life, Sam didn't had very nice singing voice. She had had scratchy voice enough for blues but nothing much more. Now it was slightly better, but Hermione was still leagues above her.

They played a few songs with Sam and Hermione singing and the twins and Ginny occasionally pitching in, adding wizarding version of that particular song making for diversity. The evening was spent in great amount of fun.

When they went to bed both girls were impressed by Sam's athletic physique and Ginny felt particularly enamored when she saw Sam's tattoo, which had been so far been hidden and was asking many questions about it. Sam was fairly sure that for Ginny, who had a harridan for mother, being inked by a muggle tattoo artist sounded like the next great thing after sliced bread.

Sam physique sparked a discussion on her training regime. Ginny seemed to be considering it as she admitted that she wanted to play Quidditch professionally (not that her mother knew it) and she would probably benefit from it, but her mother would be against it. Hermione stayed bit clear of the discussion she wasn't as that interested in exercising she could see benefits, but she seemed to prefer her books.

The next day brought an end to the little fun Sam had been having with Hermione, as Hermione walked on Sam using a heavy-duty hair gel to hold her wild hair still. Hermione then lorded it over Sam the whole rest of the morning that she hadn't fallen for such a ridiculous explanation.

After an early breakfast the group set out for a morning hike to the near hill from where the portkey would take them to the World Cup. On the hilltop they met up with the only other wizarding family that lived in Ottery St. Catchpole apart from Weasley's and Lovegood's - the Diggory's.

Cedric after his father went into a slightly fanboy greeting gave Sam a cursory glance as he greeted her and Sam had the distinct impression that he was even less happy with her change, probably she would present even more dangerous competition to his last year School Quidditch Championship.

The portkey, as Sam found to her dismay, was another magical method of travel that left her on her ass.

But the funk from this left her shortly after they entered the camp and found their camping site. Sam was even more assured in her previous observation that the Wizarding world had to be somehow collectively colorblind and that the majority of the wizarding world had a very weird idea on how to inconspicuously blend with muggles.

Like the wizard who she met when she with the other "kids" went for water, he was speaking how well he was fitting with muggles while he was wearing women's summer dress from fifties. Crossdressers might not raise that many eyebrows in this day and age, but a retro fifties crossdresser was really pushing it and might cause passers-by to call the nearest psychiatric ward to inform them that they might be missing a patient.

One tent especially caught Sam's eyes, as it looked as a silk palace complete with live peacocks strutting in front of it. As it turned out, it belonged to Malfoys as Draco came strutting from it not unlike the feathered animal in front of the tent.

Ron went into serious fan boy mode about some Bulgarian and his attention was elsewhere, much to Sam's relief, because the redheaded boy was quickly testing her patience.

The match ended as predicted, and while entertaining and with the mascots of the Bulgarians providing very nice eye candy, Sam didn't enjoy it as much as she could, because of the elf guarding an empty space near her. If she was an suspicious kind, which she was, she would say that the elf was guarding someone under invisibility cloak there. But her poking attempts were thwarted by said elf.

The evening fun, which consisted on Mr. Weasley's fumbled attempts on how to light campfire with matches, and Ron being berated by his mother for being so careless and that his wand was stolen, was interrupted by some Death Eater wannabes trying to attack, but before long the magical cops arrived and Ron's wand was found in the hands of the elf from the match.

Sam would have loved to have been able to test out some of her toys against wizards and finally find how bulletproof those wizarding punks were. The whole camping event was therefore cancelled and they returned to Burrow.

The rest of the week was spent in relative peace. Molly was harrumphing at many Sam's activities like exercising in the early morning, playing on guitar, or not being interested in cooking or household spells.

Ron was getting more and more annoying, as he was constantly pestering them. With Sam he was always whining for a game of chess or wanted to talk about Quidditch and with Hermione he was constantly pushing her to do his summer homework for him.

And if he wasn't pestering them, he was staring at both Hermione and Sam. It was obvious that he finally hit early stages of puberty, as he stared constantly at either Hermione's or Sam's chests. Which resulted into several on edge situation, which nearly ended in violence, like in the third day of her stay at Burrow Ron was reaching for another sausage with his hand and his eyes were again fixated on Sam's chest. Sam wasn't against some small petty revenge and seized the opportunity and in the precise moment when Ron's hand reached the plate with the sausages her hand with a fork flew in and stabbed Ron's. Both Hermione and Ginny didn't believe a one iota of the sincerity of her apologies to him.

Luckily for Sam and Hermione, Ginny proved to be an endless source of knowledge and experience on getting rid of the little creep without resorting to violence. Although, if Sam was honest with herself, violence was very tempting. But Ginny's methods of talking about their monthly visitors proved to be an excellent way how to get rid him as effectively as a brutal violence, but broken bones might cause that he would not come closer, anytime soon maybe, but each to his own as Sam would say.

Another interesting thing was that Mrs. Weasley had wanted to get into Sam's vault ever since they arrived back from the Cup.

She wasn't outright demanding it, but her constant remarks that Sam might forget something to buy and so on. Sam checked the Hogwarts list and she had everything she would need and there was no point in giving Molly the key the vault held only 3 knuts after all.

This greatly annoyed Molly and Sam was at the verge point of going to ask Luna stay the last three days with her. It was an actually miracle that Sam managed to keep her nerves cool on that last altercation.

Mrs. Weasley started her spiel in the afternoon when she saw Sam taking her guitar out to sit under the tree, and the conflict escalate to the new heights, as Mrs. Weasley marched to Sam and loudly proclaimed.

"Young lady, I say that you must stop this behavior at once it is unsuitable to young ladies to behave this way and I forbid it." Mrs Weasley clucked her tongue and then launched into a spiel about how improper Sam's behaviour was, how she was disappointed that she didn't raise her like that, how it was inappropriate that she didn't want to learn housekeeping spells or cooking spells, how inappropriate her activities and hobbies were, and that she found Sam's constant refusal to let her to take care of her school shopping bizarre, claiming that that no child of her age could possibly have purchased everything required for school year.

It was the last remark that really raised Sam's hackles, though, when Mrs. Weasley had the gall to say that her parents were rolling in their graves for her behavior towards her.

Sam was sure that the Potters, or her own parents for that matter, would support her in all of her activities, but the jibe did raised her hackles.

"Mrs. Weasley," her tone cold broking no arguments. "I think that my parents would find my hobbies appropriate, and I feel i must point out that you are not my mother, you didn't raise me, you seem to forget that I am only a friend of your children nothing more, and I am not a freeloader. Didn't your husband tell you that I have already paid him a reasonable sum for my board and housing? No, I can see from your face he didn't and I find it highly suspicious that you are constantly trying to get into my vault." The last comment send Mrs. Weasley backpedalling quickly, and she didn't said comment anymore about her behaviour and hobbies during the rest of the stay at Burrow. Well, it was only two days.

Then the day to return to merry Hogwarts came.

For one part it was amusing for both Sam and Hermione as they were already packed and were observing the chaos into which the whole house descended as the school-age Weasleys were hurriedly packing their things in the last minute.

They picked up a delay so big that they even had to jump into the train that was slowly starting to move.

It didn't take long to find a mostly-empty compartment in which only Luna was sitting.

Ron soon disappeared to find the blokes, since he thought the girls were mental, which was appreciated, and soon the compartment went into a lively discussion about muggle animals.

The magic raised girls had a problem believing that animal as weird as platypus existed.

Sam would have loved to have helped Hermione out, since in her trunk was an large animal encyclopaedia full of colour photographs, but she bought this book as a birthday present for Luna and she didn't want to spoil the surprise.

So she resolved into pulling the guitar and idly strumming the strings.

Ginny was the first to notice Sam's silence and called her on it.

"What are you mulling about," she asked, and Sam just shrugged as she replied.

"Nothing much just thinking what this year will bring."

"Hopefully it will be a calm one," Hermione said with a bright smile.

Sam snorted indelicately as she offered her hand as if in handshake to Hermione.

"Have we met before? I am Harriet Potter."

Hermione blinked and nodded. "Good point, I completely forgot. Still we can hope, no?"

"Yes that we can, but I don't hold my breath."

The ride was only interrupted by Draco Malfoy and his bodyguards, who barged into their compartment and demanded to know, if Sam was going to participate.

After telling him no and kindly asking him (read with wands drawn and spells at their lips) to leave, they spent the rest of their ride in an idle chatter and musical doodling.

Inside, however, Sam was going through all the hints the older Weasley's dropped, and the question the albino prick posed when he barged in and added to that the need of dressing robes for this year. It was shaping that there was some event at Hogwarts happening.

Question was, what type of event was it? She would guess there would be ball and maybe some kind of contest.

Then her thoughts spiralled bit sideways as her gaze fell on resting Crookshanks.

That furball was always sending those sarcasm filled looks to every side, mainly when he saw Ron's owl Pig, Ron, Molly and everybody in general that cat had an attitude.

And the cat was always extremely grumpy especially on Mondays… She started to think, "w_hat if he liked lasagnes and black coffee with tons of sugar?_ _I have to ask Hermione… cause that would mean that he is…?_

_Would it be too weird to ask a cat for an autograph?_

_Probably yes, it would be weird even in wizarding standards, but still…"_

She would have to test that theory. She then started to think on how to ask this and not to sound like a complete loon. And then she returned to the matter at hand of the events at the Hogwarts.

As it turned out Sam's pondering were answered sooner than she expected.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Chapter Five

The train ride ended without any further interruption and the quartet boarded one of the carriages that were pulled by the cool looking death horses. Much to Sam's regret, Luna could see them as well, and that meant that she had been a witness of death.

Much to Sam's dismay, they had to say goodbye to Luna, as she had to join the Ravenclaw table for the feast.

Her mood didn't improve, as she was flash blinded thanks to the Colin Creevy as the little creep took a surprise photo just in front of her face. She fought hard against her instincts to grab the offender and beat him senseless and had the urge do so again as when her sight started to return because the little stalker started to babble that there was another Creevy being sorted today. She fought hard to stifle her horrified scream "_Oh Gods, it's multiplying_!"

She hoped he wouldn't end in Gryffindor, but her hope would prove to be hollow and soon there were two.

The sorting went as expected. Sam was a bit disappointed that the hat again dropped some subtle hints that something big was going to happen this year in what he passed off as a song if you squinted and were drunk or stoned. Sam was still not sure what it was, but song? Hardly.

During the feast Sam was again reminded that sooner than later she should organize a meeting between Hermione and Dobby, her bushy haired bestie needed to be set straight before she unintentionally caused damage she would regret. She was operating without full set of information on house elves and it would be prudent to rectify that before Mia went on crusade

With the feast finished, the Headmaster Dumbledore stood up and began his annual welcoming speech, which was interrupted with an arrival of a new DADA teacher.

Sam looked critically as the man limped his way to the teachers' table and studied the man from the hamburger patty he was passing for a face to his peg leg. Those spoke of two things: of lifetime of combat experience and inability or unwillingness to duck...or maybe his face was so ugly that this was an improvement, Sam really didn't want to know. Another thing was the spinning eye, it brought a sense of uneasiness to Sam, though maybe it was her record with the DADA teachers. "_That eye looks freaky." _she thought offhandedly _"I wonder, if he can see through things with it ewww… what if he can see through clothes? I feel violated already. Hmmm... that reminds me I should go to see the twins and start a pool on how long he will last and when he will try to off me_," she mused to herself and added a mental nod to herself.

Then Dumbledore started speaking again, announcing that the Quidditch cup was canceled for this year, which was met with general groans, and then he announced that instead of it a renewed Triwizard tournament will be held here for the all students of age.

Sam groaned silently and mused dejectedly, "_Well, at least I don't have to wait till the annual plot on her life will be revealed. But little too soon on schedule this year."_

She had a no doubt that her name would be chosen from that damned fabled Goblet of Fire on Halloween. Sam felt the urge to slam her face against the table. So much for her hope that this Halloween would be a quiet one. She was now nearly one hundred percent sure that her name would come out of that blasted goblet_. "Wonder what would happen if I sneaked a few pounds of C4 in it and blew it up?_"

Then her thoughts turned even more sour when Fumbbledore announced that there would be an age line preventing younger students to enter their name. _"Sure, like hell that will work. "_

Her good mood all but gone, Sam knew one thing: as soon as possible, she had to hit the books and find all relevant info on this tournament. She was sure that, with her luck in this school, she needed to be prepared for everything and anything. It would be for the best to know her options.

Sam glumly walked to the Gryffindor tower and avoided much of any interaction before going to bed.

The next day, she woke early and after taking her things, she walked to R.O.R. with the map in hand avoiding the professors. There she performed her morning exercise routine and after she was done, she took a shower, which the room provided. Then she asked Dobby to take her exercise bag to her dorm and to wash her clothes.

The little guy was eager to comply, and she also asked him if he would be willing to set Hermione straight about House elves - perhaps grabbing one of the school's elves to further the points as to why Hogwarts elves were bit of an exception and why it was important for them to be bonded with the wizards otherwise.

With that completed, she walked to the breakfast and plopped herself next to Hermione.

"Morning, Mia," she greeted her friend, her mood after morning exercise brighter than yesterday.

"Morning Ri," Hermione responded as Sam grabbed a cup and poured a cup of coffee from a jug on the table.

"Since when do they offer coffee here?" Hermione asked, and Sam just simply answered, "Since I asked in the kitchen," as she smelled the brew. She found the smell of the brew was excellent and concluded that Dobby had outdone himself - it was just like liked it.

Hermione's frown spoke volumes and she was just opening her mouth when Sam lifted her hand.

"Mia stop, you are not operating on a full set of information here. And although your ideals are noble and admirable, you could end up doing more harm than good. So I asked Dobby to talk to you about house elves, so they can explain to you exactly how the things with them are, and their explanation would be more accurate because it was directly from the source rather than from the limited information that is in the books. Okay?"

Hermione frowned a bit, but relented on the topic so far with the promise of extra information.

Sam quickly checked her watch, and it was the time when the owls did their delivery. Thankfully she managed to set a P.O. box that was tied to owl service so she could receive newspapers from muggle word. And indeed, one owl landed in front of her bearing a rolled up copy the _Times_.

Several students seemed to be fascinated by the non-moving pictures and the material from, which the papers were made.

Hermione looked amused as Sam was reminding her of her father in the morning sipping on her coffee and reading through the _Times_. She asked how Sam had the newspapers delivered and Sam provided the necessary information to her friend, pointedly ignored her housemates for whom this was not a normal occurrence to see.

"Anything interesting?" Hermione asked after a while.

Sam looked up only to see Luna coming to the hall and waved her to sit down across them. Luna gave a quick look at her house table and another look at Sam, then quickly made up her mind and sat with her friends at the Gryffindor table. Sam greeted Luna and offhandedly passed orange marmalade and butter to Luna who smiled shyly, internally delighted that her friend knew exactly what she liked.

As Sam returned to her reading she added commentary. "Not much, politicians are squabbling. The European parliament is squabbling over some nonsense law about cabbage regulation and light bulbs. Insurgents attacks in Iraq hmph this will be really long shot till there will be any semblance of peace down there. NHL season is postponed I wouldn't be surprised if it got canceled. Hmm #snerk#"

The last noise drew Hermione's and Luna's attention.

"Something funny?"

"Yeah, you could say that. Cops arrested some nutjob and sent him for a psychiatric evaluation. Well right after he will be released from ICU that is."

"Still not seeing what is so funny."

"Well apparently this nutter is obsessed with sayings and similes and he wanted to prove that the saying _that barking dog seldom bites _is true and he actually went to prove it… As it turns out every barking one did in fact bite."

"Crude and mildly amusing. Where was it?"

"Umm… in Badgers Drift in Midsomer County."

"Isn't that the county with highest number of murders in the whole UK?"

Now it was Sam's turn to look out of her newspapers.

"Come again?"

"Well, according to what I heard, this county has one of the highest number of violent deaths in the whole country, comparable to big metropolitan areas like London."

"Really?"

"Yep, it makes you wonder it is also said that this county is one the most picturesque and peaceful looking rural counties in the whole UK." Hermione remarked.

"Well, will you look at that, and people still tend to kill each other even more than in big cities. Maybe it is by all that peace that is getting to them."

"Dunno, worth pondering doesn't it?"

"True." With that she folded her papers being finished with them.

Luna wandered over to pick her schedule from professor Flitwick while McGonagall handed one for each to Hermione and Sam. After scanning the schedule, she decided to take the meeting this evening, after her divination class.

She was disappointed to find out that she couldn't drop the subject right now and pick something else, as she obviously had no aptitude for it and couldn't take arithmancy, which looked interesting. As it was explained in the rulebook, she would have to decide in the beginning of the third year to change them. But the only bright spot was that she could still take the OWL exam for it. If she could pass a special test that was designed for the home-schooled students in her holidays before the fifth year, she could spend her fifth year doing the class.

Sam spent the day in relative peace and in the evening right after dinner she took Hermione into an unused classroom where they met Dobby and one of the schoolhouse elves. Tilddy explained to Hermione that all house elves were more or less depending on wizards' magic, and being bonded to the family was their way how to sustain themselves. Without the connection, they would wither and die. The Hogwarts elves were bit of an exception as they fed on the ambient magic in the school. Although Hermione still was miffed about how house elves were treated, she was dissuaded from her plan of freeing them at Hogwarts.

They quietly returned to the their common room with a slightly subdued Hermione. In an attempt to cheer her friend up, Sam came down with her guitar. Ron saw her descending the stairs and loudly scoffed at her.

"That stupid thing again, why don't you do something more interesting like…lets play chess."

"No," Sam said off-handedly and sat on the windowsill where she started to tune the guitar. She had the feeling it was bit out of tune on the G-string. Ron was stumped by the refusal and tried to force the issue by grabbing Sam's hand, only to have it suddenly twisted and forced in his knees. The cold green-eyed stare seemed to chill him to his very core.

"Ron, I will say this only once and for your benefit very slowly. Do. Not. Touch. Me. Again. Next time, I'll break it. Comprende, amigo?"

She took his pained whimper as a yes and let him go. Immediately reverting into the easy-going mood, she again returned to her tuning. The rest of the Gryffs seemed stunned by the altercation and even by the fact that the infamous Harriet Potter was sitting in the room and fine-tuning a musical instrument, looking like nothing was out of place.

The fine-tuning was finished by a G major chord as Sam started to tap with her foot giving the beat and started to play crossroad blues as a warm up and started to quietly sing it.

When the final words of the song left her mouth she added when she was finishing the final tone.

"I do take requests, you know."

That started requests for some songs. Some she knew and some she didn't, but she could improvise.

And the evening was spent in a fun of her playing to her heart's content and starting a new Gryffindor tradition of music evenings.

The next day saw Sam hitting the school library as well as asking Luna to find any relevant books in the private Ravenclaw common room library that mentioned the Triwizard Tournament as well as a rulebook.

She needed them and soon, as the tournament choosing was not that far off, and she needed to be ready. The next day brought a potions class and the man teaching was as petty always.

Severus Snape was many things: murderer, spy, petty man and evil minion. (Not that he would ever admit the last one, he was minion to no one in his mind.) And there in his class was one of the subjects of his hatred, sitting casually and spinning a potion knife in her hand, looking mildly interested. The mere sight of her face infuriated him. She needed to be brought down one or ten pegs and he would happily just do that. He might have promised to protect the child of Lily, but it didn't mean he couldn't make the James' spawn's life a living hell. He was flexible that way.

He needed leverage and Potter's mind would be unprotected as always, supplying him with whatever he needed. So he sent a legilimency probe, which ran head first and with a dull thud into a thick wall around Potter's mind and bounced back. Snape had to shake his head, feeling like large gong had gone off in his skull.

"What are you staring at? Are you waiting for an invitation? Instructions are at the board. Begin!" he bellowed, as he had to sit down. He started to massage his temples and he felt like he was being watched, so he slowly lifted his head and he caught a stare from his previous target, her eyes were cold, narrow, and emotionless.

He could only think that she knew what had transpired here, but before he could say anything she began her work. He still couldn't shake the words that he saw when his probe ran into that wall.

TRESPASSERS WILL BE SHOT!

SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

He should bring this to headmaster. He lifted himself and helped himself to a headache relief potion from his stores. As he downed it and shook his head, he thought to himself, _"What had brought this headache on?"_

**Somewhere up**

"Whew, that was close," Tasha said as she pulled out a phone and dialled Sidney.

"Hey, Sid, just let you know, the barriers we installed at our _**project**_worked perfectly. The anti retaining safety you suggested worked as miracle."

"Yes that's good to hear and who tried it?"

"Snape."

"Why I am not surprised? That man is real piece of work. He reminds me of one man I diagnosed long ago when I was alive, though that man was more fanatically patriotic. I had to even charge him double for his just sheer size of his paranoia. Anyhow, how is our project faring?"

"Fairly good. She has integrated herself into her new life and started some changes, but so far she is biding her time against her enemies. She knows that she will be chosen and is making preparation for it. I fear that once she is chosen, she'll sow chaos in her footsteps," Tasha said with a chuckle and then asked, "How is the _**project**_ fairing on your side?"

"She is doing better. She is mighty fragile, but her parents help as much they can. Maybe with a century or two she might have another shot at life."

"Good to hear. Oh, and just to warn you, a guy from IA came sniffing around doing some reviews, so just to let you know to hide her and keep the story we had reported straight okay."

"You betcha, don't forget, poker night tomorrow."

"Why don't I just give you the money? It would be less humiliating."

"I take that as a yes, see you there." With a groan she hung up. The man had a very distracting poker techniques where he was analysing other players out loud.

But they managed to squirm some IOU from other departments to keep their little _**project**_ quiet and to offer it a leg up from them. She grinned, tomorrow night would be fun and at least. She won't be the only one losing money and dignity to Sidney.

**Back to the real world**

Sam wasn't sure how to feel, to be honest. Snape seemed to try to use magic to enter her mind - she felt the probe and she instinctively knew how to put her defences up. She was sure she never studied something like this but she just rebuffed the probe. She assumed that the man would then do something, but he seemed to completely forget the altercation. She had feeling that the grim reapers had something to do with that.

It was pity she couldn't ask them, but she wasn't one to look into a gift horse in the mouth. Snape seemed to completely forget the event and while he was petty and offensive as usual, he didn't try to enter her mind again, although he did on several occasions he seem to ponder it before changing his mind. She found the way he seemed to stare her in her eyes creepy, but the probe never came as he suddenly changed his mind and found a different target.

The days were now set in a slight routine of researching of rules. Hermione tried to be positive, and even though she helped, she tried to convince Sam that Sam was panicking and that she wouldn't be chosen, but Sam stood her ground.

And to be honest, she wasn't sure if Hermione was trying more to persuade herself than Sam that this year would be a calm one.

In the next days they had their first lesson with the new DADA teacher. He proved himself to be a paranoid and surprisingly fairly competent teacher, but Sam couldn't keep herself from thinking that there was something off about the man.

It might have been an ex-FBI agent speaking from Sam, but there was something in in the man's behaviour that wasn't kosher for her tastes. What really brought up this feeling up was a brief look on the man's face when he cast the unforgivable curses. Even though it was harder to read the hamburger patty face Sam, could see something that wasn't supposed to be there when the man was casting the spells.

Pleasure.

It was something she wouldn't expect to find there, and yet there it was. It didn't fit into the man's history of a hardboiled dark wizard hunter and he somehow seemed to be satisfied with how shaken Neville Longbottom looked after the lesson. It rubbed her all kinds of wrong.

When she was researching Moldyshort she stumbled on a short paragraph mentioning that two brave aurors by name Longbottoms had been tortured into insanity right in front of their toddler son. Things like that leave scars and Sam felt sorry for the young man. After the lesson she tried to speak with him, but she was brushed off by the upset teen.

The weeks passed as the school picked up speed and Sam's search for the rule book was finally successful. It hadn't been easy, but she finally managed to find it in a catalogue of an American mail order bookshop, and she was able to order a copy. And now it was full of notes and colour papers. She even managed to get a letter back from Sirius. In her last one she expressed her concerns about the Tournament and asked him to contact the goblins to try to find out about his status outside of Wizarding Britain.

In his return letter Sirius admitted that he was back in the UK, hiding in an old family mansion in London, and he picked up a stray wolfing on his way. He promised in it that communication would be now faster now and that he would try to contact Goblins, although he was reluctant to do so, as he was afraid that they might hand him over into merciful hands ministerial dementors because his family hadn't had good relationship with goblins. He also included his floo address in case of emergency.

The only noteworthy events were Hermione's birthday, which they celebrated in quiet as bushy-haired one received several books from Sam.

During the summer Hermione once admitted that she enjoyed good humorous novel and even sci-fi now and then, so Sam decided to take a few books of her own personal favorites and the package held first two Discworld novels and a copy of _The Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers_.

The books were then devoured by the bookworm and appreciated.

On the second of the October Luna's birthday came and she was amazed by the large encyclopedia Sam procured for her and could be seen turning the pages of it for many days at every opportunity.

That brought a smile to Sam's face - Luna was blooming. The little girl was still quirky, but nobody would dare to pick on her now. She had put the fear of god into the Ravenclaw queen bitch Chang and she managed to hold her cohorts on a tight leash. Someone must not have taken seriously the warning that Luna's things were off-limits because Luna's gift disappeared a few days later. The girl looked heartbroken, but the next morning the book was right back in the hands of the owner and the Ravenclaws found a surprise at their table in the great hall.

Poor Marietta, someone dressed in black had taken her in the middle of night from her room, stripped her naked and tied her like roast beef with ropes, stuck an apple with a spell to her lips and had written _Thief_ in a bold black on her forehead and left her overnight in great hall on the Ravenclaw table, lying on a large silver platter. Sam wasn't vindictive or overreacting, no, not really…oh hush.

The follow-up investigation was short as no evidence of the preparator could be found and Marietta refused to tell what the inscription on her forehead meant.

The curious side effect was that Cho seemed to be jumpy when Sam walked near her, but as far Sam knew Cho was model student towards Luna so far, she was scot-free so to say.

Ron was getting more and more obnoxious and although he didn't try to touch her ever since the guitar incident on the second night at Hogwarts, he was still hanging around trying to butt in to everything as if he had some say in it or - gods forbid - he was in some relationship with them. Right now he was a nuisance who was on a crash course with getting beat up if he didn't stop annoying Sam.

The day after roast beef incident, as it seemed to be nicknamed, Luna sat next to Sam at the breakfast and gave her a rather long look before saying softly, "Thank you."

Sam just looked at her as she gently smiled and answered, "You are welcome, but for the record I had nothing to do with it, little moon."

"Then tell it to those responsible."

"Okay little moon, I will."

Luna beamed at this and dug into her breakfast. Sam just let a smile play on her lips as she returned to her morning paper and cuppa Joe. Life was good so far. Two weeks later the notice that the two foreign schools would be arriving nailed the truth. The day of the choosing was near. Sam just hoped she was ready.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Chapter Six

Sam was fidgeting the whole day of the choosing. She had made it as widely known as possible that she wouldn't come near the Goblet even if her life depended on it. Anyone who asked would be told that, no, she wouldn't even consider placing her name in it. But when it was Halloween, shit happened to hit the fan, at least as far as life of Harriet Potter was any indication.

The dinner came and Sam was watching the Goblet anxiously.

"You will see Ri, you have nothing to worry about it will be over soon," Hermione tried to sooth her, but without any success.

"Mia, I will believe it when I see it," Sam replied just as the Goble started to spew names.

Cedric Diggory was the choice for Hogwarts. Sam always thought the Hufflepuff always spend too much time on his looks to be completely straight, but then again Sam was as straight as a corkscrew, so she wasn't one to talk.

For Beauxbatons was chosen the obvious ice queen of the school, Fleur Delacour. Rumor was that she was part Veela, as was demonstrated by the zombified boys who followed in her wake. She was very pretty, no doubt about it, but Sam never had a thing for blondes.

And for Durmstrang was chosen the Quidditch star Victor Krum. Sam idly wondered if a sour expression was his default expression or he had any other, like dour. She remembered one of her old friends who would describe his expression with words. _He wears an expression of an a__r__se_. It was quite ironic that while he was graceful in the air on the ground he moved like a malfunctioning robot.

And then the Goblet lit for the fourth time and Sam's hopes crashed like a piano from a sixth floor on an unsuspecting pedestrian.

"Well, fuck," she said as she slammed her head against the table.

"Harriet Potter," Dumbledore bellowed.

"No one here by that name," Sam cried from her seat. The people around her started to be buzzing like a stirred bee nest.

"Harriet Potter, come up here," came another bellow. Sam lifted her head and looked at the stoic-looking head of her house, the Headmaster, and the whole shebang of teachers staring at her. Her schoolmates, with several exceptions, were staring at her open mouthed and with rising anger.

"Shto, Ja ne govorim po anglisky," she tried weakly. She could hear as Hermione to stifle a surprised snort.

"Harriet come up here, please," came Dumbledore's imperative voice and as McGonagall marched to the table. Sam sighed with a very rude curse on her lips as she stood up and proclaimed, "I did not enter my name. " McGonagall pursed her lips as she answered with an air of finality, "The Headmaster told you to go to join the champions where we will discuss this further." The disappointed look on McGonagall's face told the story how much she believed Sam's proclamation.

"Awesome," she said the sarcasm filling her voice. As she headed to the after chamber hands in her pocket petulant expression in her face.

When she entered the antechamber, she was greeted by the voice of the French champion.

"Iz something matter little girl? Do zey need us outside?

"_The hell, short jokes? I might be just over five feet, but __h__ey__,__"_ She thought and retorted.

"And you are French and blonde, but don't worry, I won't hold these against you."

That brought a sneer to the frenchie's face as she uttered something that could be translated as _fuck you_ in French.

"Oh, is that a proposition?" asked Sam, as she gave the frenchie a leering look and waggled her eyebrows. "Maybe later I'll take you up on that." With a grin, she decided that baiting of this French bitch was way funnier than brooding.

Fleur seemed stunned, and unfortunately the next French words that came out of her mouth could be translated that Sam needed righteous spanking. Sam grinned at that.

"By you? Oh, please do, I'll bring whips and ropes, it's gonna be fuunnn." Sam wasn't submissive or fond of BDSM, but the expression on the frenchie's face was totally worth it. Instead of replying, Fleur just firmly shut her mouth, not willing to say anything more. In corner of her eye she noted deeper scowl on Krum and a disapproving expression on Diggory.

It was just in time as the door opened and the Headmasters and headmistress entered, closely followed by Crouch, Bagman and Moody. Sam couldn't stop herself from commenting in her head when seeing them enter, _"Well what have we here, old geezer, French mountain, Snape's lost cousin, Mr__.__ sneer-a-lot himself, what is he even doing here, Head duffer, Mr. Hamburger patty face, Ministerial mustache and Professional idiot. No __party to defend me is present, __I believe we are complete. I will eat my shorts, if they say I don't have to compete."_

She was not wrong in her assumptions, because after they asked if she entered, which she vehemently denied, they started to squabble about her participation. It was clear, though, that the only ones who were openly against her competing were the foreign headmasters and Sprout.

The professional idiot Bagman had even the gall to call it marvelous turn of events. Sam had to call on all gods of holy and unholy not to strike that idiot down. The ministry moustache douche seemed indifferent. Moody was no help, because he was for her participation to lure out the one who put her name in, which she found as an odd logic at best.

Dumbles had a sad face number 4, if Sam wasn't mistaken, as he was spouting words unbreakable, binding and so on. Karkaroff and Maxime were outraged and were incensed that the Hogwarts had two champions, and they only one, and they didn't bother with the facts that Sam was entered against her will or that she was underage.

Snape, gods only knew why he was there, was spouting some trash that she had played them all and other garbage and he was wanting to use veritaserum on her.

Sam was sure that on one beautiful day she would do something nasty to the greasy dick. Something that would involve blowtorch and pliers at the very least, and that day was coming closer and closer.

Sprout was protesting on two fronts that Sam was underage and stealing Hufflepuffs thunder. While not exactly on her side, Sam knew it was the closest to support she got here.

Sam knew one thing, the game was getting more and more dangerous. She so far had cut Dumbles from her financial life and real life, not that he knew that. Now this might get something from it. She studied the rulebook through and through and knew that, if she was found unfit by majority of judges, she could get out of contract in the hour after her name came from the goblet.

According to several sources, what made the goblet unique was that if a name was chosen, it was irrelevant if the named person entered the name by themselves or not and it would tie the contract to the magic of the named person. The downside was that it could only choose five people in one choosing and then it's magic went dormant for three years before it could be relit again. The only escape clause was that an hour after choosing, a panel of judges could void a contract by a majority vote. She had to write to Gringotts, but as it looked so far those idiots just have declared her an adult. Even against her best attempts to convince them to disqualify her, Ministry douche and Dumbles with Moody's counsel seemed to think that she had to compete. Well, officially she would become adult after completing first task, proving herself as capable as other champions.

Although being declared adult could bring her a number of advantages, it came with the price of having to compete and, if the record of the tournament held true, she might not survive this.

She was boned, but she would damn herself if she sold her skin easily.

"_Awesome prospect and the patronizing pat on my head. Wankers all of them__,_" Sam fumed on her way back_. "If the pattern stays the same, most of the school will hate me and I will be on my own. Like the second year. Fine, I can deal with that. NO more Miss __N__ice __G__irl for them. T__h__ey wanna mess with me, I will wreck their shit up." _

Sam was livid as she stalked to the Gryff common room. It was full of faces looking at her, and unfortunately the first face she came to face her was Ron. "_Well at least I can end this sham of friendship. Publicly,"_ thought Sam.

"How did you do it and why didn't you tell us? Afraid we would steal your thunder?" he said in an accusing manner.

She rolled her eyes.

"I did not enter my name, why on earth I would do that?" she said in tired manner.

Ron just snorted. His ears were completely red.

"To get fame, of course, and to show how better you are. I am not stupid you know," he vented at her, even pointing his finger in her face.

That was a mistake. Sam normally had patience, and it took a lot to light her fuse, but that finger just did it. The original idea of ditching him without violence went out of the window. Her right hand moved like a lightning bolt and caught the accusing finger. With a snap, she dislocated it, turning it nearly 90 degrees from its original position. Ron screamed as he fell on the floor, cradling his hand, and Sam just cocked her head.

"It was a rhetorical question, and no, Ron, I actually think that you are basically retarded and as useful as a condom machine in the Vatican, but that is neither here nor there. Momma should have taught you not to point fingers at people. Some might take offense," she added as an after thought.

"Now, to all of you, I did not enter this fucked up event. Believe what you will, but I dare you, any hostile action against me and mine will be met with an appropriate amount of force. Try it. I fucking dare you." With her piece said, she saw that Ron was nearly done pulling his wand on her peripheral vision so she turned and dealt a swift and hard kick into his wrist, sending the wand tumbling out of his grasp with a satisfying crack and stalked to her dorm. People were parting like red sea in front of her.

She stalked into her bed and threw herself in, shutting the drapes and grabbing the pillow. She pressed it against her face and screamed into it.

She heard a soft knock on one of the posts of her bed as Hermione softly spoke, "Ri?"

"Yes?"

Hermione spread the drapes to enter the bed and sat in the corner of the bed.

"You know, I believe you right?" her bestie tentatively asked.

"I know," said Sam with a smile as she sat up. "But counting you and Luna, I think I reached the end of the list of people who believe me here so far. How bad is it down there?"

"Bad, most of them are siding with Ron. The Quidditch team and Ginny are on your side, but that's all. Others will come around I am sure. Even Ron."

Sam snorted, "I am done and past caring about Ron and the others. We'll see, but as far as I am concerned, they will have to work to earn their redemption. Ron is just a moron and I will not waste my time with him."

"Oh Ri," Hermione said as she hugged Sam.

"You know Mia, I have a feeling you are saying this very sentence more and more every year we are here."

They spent a while in a silence before Sam sighed and extracted herself from the hug and went to get her small portable desk which she got from Hermione. Using her fountain pen, she composed two letters, one for her dogfather informing him of what transpired and the second for Smashfist to verify her status. Hermione asked to who she was writing to, and she decided to explain.

"To my esteemed dogfather to let him know that Halloween went as usual." This earned a snort from Hermione. "And the second letter I'm writing to confirm something."

Hermione didn't like the smile. "Should I be afraid?"

"You and Luna? No. The rest of the school? Hell yeah."

Hermione briefly reflected on her friend and how she had changed. Last year Harriet would be sitting here scared witless, trying to hide inside of her shell, but this new and improved version had been plotting and preparing ever since she learned of a possible threat. Hermione liked this new version.

"Ri, you scare me sometimes, though in a good way. But promise me, if you need help, you'll tell me, okay? "

"I promise," said Sam sincerely.

"Good. Need something, any hints of what's to come?" Sam smiled and after short thought she said, "I need one thing confirmed, but meet me tomorrow morning around eight on seventh floor by the tapestry with dancing trolls with Luna. I'll give you my scoop of things then, okay?"

Hermione then kept Sam company for a while and both of them read before she left for her own bed. Sam called Hedwig and sent the bird out with the letters and went to sleep, though only after casting few spells around her bed to wake her up in the morning and to alert her if someone was sneaking up on her.

The next day Sam made it a point to avoid the whole student population, going to the R.o.R and taking it to limit.

Hermione came with Luna to the seventh floor corridor, but it seemed empty when suddenly door across from an especially ugly painting of wizard teaching trolls dancing materialized, and Harriet's head wrapped in a towel poked out and motioned them in.

Inside it looked like they had been transported from the old, drafty Scottish castle to a veranda of a beach house somewhere in Caribbean.

The sound of the waves crashing and warmth of the sunshine was soothing. Luna and Hermione looked around in awe and only then did they notice that Sam had a large towel draped over herself and under it she was dressed in bikini. "Welcome to Potter's beach day," she greeted them with a smile.

Sam threw off the towel and rested on a beach lounge chair, taking a sip from martini glass containing a daiquiri. It was hot here, and she smiled.

"How?" Hermione breathed as she stared in awe.

"Your guess is as good as mine, this room changes into whatever you want. In this case, it is a nice Caribbean beach. In the room behind, you'll find swimwear in your sizes. It's hot out here, and I don't want you to overheat in those robes." She gestured to the rest of the beach house.

After the two returned and settled in the beach chairs, Sam handed them non-alcoholic mochitos. Sam noticed that both of them had chosen rather conservative one-piece swimsuits.

As they settled Sam elaborated, "I didn't want to mix with people today and I thought a little holiday wouldn't be a bad idea. This is the closest to the beach that I can get here."

"True, this sure beats any beaches in England," Hermione agreed.

"So how was it down there?"

"Ravenclaws believe you cheated your way in the Tournament. Chang might be afraid of you and won't dare to come near me, but she is Cedric's girlfriend and she dutifully supports him, so they started campaigning against you." Luna said with sigh.

Sam just nodded. Hermione then continued, "Gryffindor is riled up. The Quidditch team still backs you up, but they and Ginny are the only ones who think you didn't cheat. The others, well..." She shrugged and continued, "Hufflepuffs are mad that you stole their thunder, and Slytherin is against you on of the sheer principle that you are a Gryff."

Luna then took over, "You should be beware that the _Prophet_ article didn't give you much positive light."

"No surprises, then."

"So spill. Why we are here?" asked Hermione as she took sip of her mochito.

Sam took a breath and explained, "Honestly I wanted to introduce you two to this room. It's Room of Requirement, or as the house elves call it, the come and go room. I just beg you not to tell anybody. I want to keep this room as an asset and a small safe haven here in the middle of this craziness. The other things I wanted to talk about is that I figured out that our glorious leader decided to enter me into the tournament because they said that for me it is binding to compete. They could disqualify me and get me out of the contract, but they decided that me in tournament is better for them and I am stuck on competing."

This drew gasps from the girls as Sam continued, "The only positive thing is that they, and I don't think they realized this, declared me adult if I complete the first task. This information could give me an advantage. My account manager confirmed it, too: I come to an inheritance, but only if I survive the first task that is. So I wanted to celebrate a bit with my closest friends and de facto adopted siblings."

Then Sam took a deep breath. "There is another thing I figured out during the holidays and since I am in this sharing mood, I should tell you." She paused to try to figure out how to say it. Luna and Hermione looked encouragingly at her.

"I am...you know how quite few people thought I had a thing for Ron? I don't know where they picked the notion I want to have anything with that moron, but I must say that they were wrong on many levels. The main problem is that they presume that I am straight as an arrow, but the arrow is broke. I'm bent. It's who am I and I am not going to be hiding anything anymore," she said hurriedly and looked shyly at the two girls. "Does it change anything between us?"

Luna and Hermione exchanged a looks. This was surprising revelation. For Luna it didn't change anything, Harriet was a big sister who went to a great lengths for her and always treated her like favourite little sibling. Hermione found it a bit funny because it explained why Harriet let only her hug her.

"No," they said in unison as they tackled their friend in a hug.

Sam grinned and pulled her best friend and adopted sister to a net to play a few rounds of beach volleyball, which she took a great delight in teaching to Luna. The rest of the day was spent in beach fun, where they played various beach games and went swimming. After few rounds, Hermione nervously began to talk after another prompt from Luna.

"Ri, I should have probably told you this, but you have been assigned a detention," she began and Luna rolled her eyes and added.

"It seems that your head of house has a serious nargle infestation," Luna said, and Sam immediately translated it into, "McGonagall had gone around and lost a significant number of marbles."

Luna continued, "Although she couldn't find you in the morning, she told Hermione to tell you that you have a detention with Mr. Filch tonight as well as deducting 50 points for hurting Ron without provocation." Hermione nodded, blushing a bit looking at her feet. Sam had a feeling Luna wasn't finished and she was right.

"Hermione here then had the gall to call it highly unfair because it was after being provoked that you hurt him. But your Head of House, in her befuddled state, believing what majority of her house told her, told Hermione here that for of that outburst and lying, she should share your detention with you."

Sam stared in awe. "_My god, her corruption to the dark side is nearly complete, damn I am good."_ Hermione blushed a bit more and mumbled something what sounded it was no big deal.

"Mia, it is big deal, I don't know what to say thank you, I am in your debt," she said as she hugged her friend, who blushed furiously.

It was a good day. She had great opportunity to switch her alertness off and just enjoy being with her friends.

The next day, she got a real feel of being ostracised by the majority of the school. Only her friends and the Quidditch team were behind her, which was a small comfort.

With Hermione and Luna openly standing up for her, she decided to include them in her magical training. She started to teach them the basics of self-defence and hand-to-hand combat. They also trained in advanced spell work with her. Ginny sometimes dropped by and asked for general tips on how to work out and exercise, leading to her to be added to a training regimen as well.

The insults were getting more and more frequent, but she held her head high, even during their detention. Sam was a bit vindictive as she stopped hanging around in tower and stopped her sing-along evenings in the common room. Instead, she started to hang with Hermione, Luna, Ginny and the Quidditch team in one unused classroom near tower, which they refurbished, to a private common room.

People were muttering about her behind her back. Draco tried to curse her in her back after one DADA lesson, but before he had his wand out Moody transfigured him into an ferret and bounced him several times against the ground, gleefully proclaiming that he was _teaching_. Although still suspicious of him, it earned him a few points in her eyes for the laughs it provided.

But this event was one that convinced to up her guard a few levels, and three days later the ferret, as she started to refer to Malfoy, tried it again.

That morning she had just reached the Great Hall and she immediately noticed that it was unusually packed. Her friends were in their customary seats at the end of the table, holding her a seat and just from the looks on their faces told her that something was happening in the hall. Something that she won't probably like. She looked around and saw Malfoy holding an empty box, and nearly everyone in school had a badge pinned to their robes.

"Hey scarhead," taunted the ferret, "Like the badges? I am giving out them for free." He proudly displayed the badge he had pinned to his robes that proclaimed: _**Support Cedric Diggory the real Hogwarts Champion**_. And then it flashed to _**Potter Stinks**__._

The whole hall stilled as they awaited explosion. But instead they got and unexpected laughter coming from Harriet Potter.

"Oh Drakey," she said between peals of laughter, as she started to clap, "You thought this up by yourself? No five-year old was helping you? Aww, how cute, and you paid some ravens to do it for you, didn't you? Papa must be sooo proud of you," she cooed at him.

The silence was broken as Draco changed his color into bright red and started to sputter in an outraged, "When my father hears this…"

"Yeah, yeah, heard it before - wasn't scared then and not scared now. Try something more original, or did you ran out of script already?" she mocked.

Draco was incensed, and Sam was concerned that no professor came to end this altercation. At least he hadn't gone for his wand, yet. Sam counted on Draco trying to publicly attack her; the question was, should she proceed with the half baked plan she had?

"You half blooded…dyke of a mudblooded bitch!" Now this drew a few gasps from the onlookers. That did it, calling her mother a bitch was not a smart move.

"Careful Draco," this time her tone was not mocking or cheerful. It was cold and had a steel edge in it. As she straightened herself, she continued, "I might be dyke and you can talk trash about me any day of week. I'm big girl and I can take it. You are just a little cum stain in face of humanity, but talk like this about my mother and I might tear that tongue of yours out, for you it would a great loss as you are all words and no action after all. You are just a coward and our duel in first year just showed me just how big. Malfoys have no honour," she hissed quietly so only Draco could hear her. She knew that she was in it right now, the bait was thrown and she was curious if Draco was dumb enough to take it.

He sneered at her and he screamed, "You bitch! Malfoys are no cowards, you want a rematch, then for this insult against my house's honour you got it, so mote be it! Name your terms!" Sam could see in a corner of her eye that professors were lifting themselves out of their seats. She had to hurry up to seal this. This was easy so far, like a stealing candy from a baby. "_Hook, line, sinker, rod and a copy of Angling Times."_ she thought

"Tomorrow, here at high noon. Bring a weapon of your choice and we will settle this." There was a thump of magic as the deal was sealed and Draco skunked back to his table. The teachers looked angry, but they knew that the deal was sealed and the two would duel. McGonagall looked very angry as she headed towards Sam.

Snape was on her heels and she immediately said, "Miss Potter what is meaning of this!"

Sam just grinned as she saucily answered. "Settling a matter between two heirs of old families. Nothing you should be concerned about." That stunned McGonagall. Sam then brightened and spoke to the whole hall ignoring, the scowling Snape who went to berate Draco. He was Slytherin enough that he knew or at least suspected that Draco jumped into a duel that was stacked against him.

Sam announced, "Since I hold all your attention here, I think it is a good place to make a declaration."

In a swift move she pulled her wand grasped it and in a serious tone she intoned, "I hereby swear on my life and magic that I did not enter my name into the Goblet of Fire nor did I ask anybody in any form to do it for me. So I spoke, So I swear, So mote be it." There was an audible thump of magic and many people gasped that she didn't fall over dead. The face of McGonagall was especially interesting as she was a great impression of a fish out of water.

With a smug tone, she held the memory of when she first made love to her long-time girlfriend, Ashley, in her previous life and roared, "_**E**__**xpecto **__**P**__**atronum."**_ A silver wolf leapt from her wand and she felt a exhausted because somehow she had drastically overpowered the spell.

The wolf made a circle searching enemies and then he trotted back to Sam, sat in front of her and barked.

And Sam stared into its face in disbelief.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**AN 2: Sorry for delay, but I promise that another chapter shall be posted by the end of the week.**

**AN 3: This is dedicated to my mothers old dog Equa she was wolf coloured German Shepherd and I had lot of adventures with her when I was kid, she was the smartest and slyest dog I have ever met. She was great thief of chicken eggs, for who latches and door handles meant nothing more than a small delay. Miss you much.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Chapter Seven (Enter Jerry-Lee)

Sam blinked, as she looked into the wolf face and then it hit her.

It was Jerry-Lee.

**Her** Jerry-Lee!

When Sam was a little girl, her parents bought her a puppy of a new breed that came from their original home country, a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. The breed was created by crossing of Carpathian Wolf and German Shepherd for Czechoslovak military in 1950s.

Jerry-Lee might have looked like a wolf, but he was the smartest and the slyest dog Sam ever knew and she adored him. He was her constant companion through her childhood until she was an adult. They went through a lot of misadventures together and when he died at a blessed age of fifteen, she cried for hours for him and never had another dog since then.

And now he was back! It brought a smile to her face as she completely forgot that she had a large audience. She would be relieved to know that, except for Hermione, no one present realized that Harriet's patronus had been a different animal, because the thing she produced at the match between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor last year and which knocked Malfoy and his cronies down had only been a semi-formed blob.

"Hey, Jerry-Lee." She managed to say softly, tears threatening to escape her eyes.

The big lug just whined and jumped at Sam and he actually managed to knock Sam on her backside. He felt almost real, almost tangible as he licked Sam's face.

Sam just started to laugh and in corner of her eyes she felt wetness. Her Jerry was back. "_Damn it"_ she thought furiously _"I won't cry, I won't cry, oh hell If I ever see my grim reapers I am going to kiss them both."_

"Get off me you big wolfy lug and bother someone else." She said with a laugh. With a joyful whine that Sam knew Jerry made before starting any of his shenanigans, he bounded of her and jumped on a Gryffindors table.

There he licked Luna's face as the girl squeaked in surprise then continued on his journey across the table top, nimbly navigating between jugs and bowls. Only one particularly large jug full of hot tea was overturned when he decided to jump off the table. Strangely it landed and spilled right into Ron's lap. Some would say it was done on purpose.

Jerry-Lee then bounded around the Ravenclaw table where he stopped, growled and barked at Marietta before making a beeline out of hall.

Sam meanwhile stood and dusted herself off, secretly drying her tears with her sleeve, and took her place at the end of the table next to Luna and across to Hermione where she poured herself a cup of coffee. Her previous intention of telling the most of the school to go stuff itself after her declaration was completely forgotten. Her Jerry-Lee was back, the boys were back in town.

"You planned on this altercation didn't you, but did you know patronus could do that? And why did you call him Jerry-Lee?" Hermione asked in one breath. Sam chuckled

"Yep and nope," Sam said, popping the p. "And just look at him he has a Jerry-Lee basically written on his face. How could I call him something else? It would be rude wouldn't it?"

Hermione harrumphed, "You're impossible."

Sam continued, "Yup, and don't forget it. Anyhow, I heard something about that professor Vector holding a lesson or something on probability factors combined with random groupings. Know when?"

"Hmm in three weeks, I think. Why?"

"No reason," Sam replied too innocently for Hermione's taste. There was a good reason why Sam was asking; in her previous life she had an uncle named Charles who hadn't been around much because his occupation was not a very honest one. And it brought a quite few question when Sam enrolled to Quantico. Charles was a gambler, a hustler specializing in long cons and in the time Sam was at Quantico, he was serving his second year of a prison sentence because he sort of sold Brooklyn Bridge. When he was around when she was younger, he taught all the little card tricks he knew to his only niece.

Before Sam could lift her cup to her lips, she heard Jerry-Lees barking, a cat screaming and metal crashing as if several suits of armor had been overturned. "_Well, that didn't take long. Although Jerry-Lee was normally fond of cats, I guess Mrs. Norris' evil vibe is too much even for him._"

Mrs. Norris ran through the great hall from one door and disappeared into the other corridor as if she had a hellhound hot on her heels.

Jerry-Lee came back to the hall few seconds later and he was leading a giggling second year Snake, Astoria Greengrass by her sleeve of her robe. Stopping by Sam with the girl, he released her sleeve and gave a pleading whine.

Sam could see that Daphne Greengrass stood from the Slytherin table and stomping towards them, her face was not even as half amused as her little sister's.

"No Jerry-Lee, you can**not** keep her." Sam said resolutely, and he looked at Astoria and whined even more pleadingly, as Astoria had another gigglefest.

"_Jerry-Lee hasn't changed at all, He goes and adopts another stray,"_ she thought amusedly as the dog in question whined pathetically. She vividly remembered when Jerry-lee once brought home a dirty soaked and half starved kitten that he pulled from a pond. The kitten was later named Thea and then lived another good ten years with them inseparable from Jerry-Lee.

"No means no. Besides, you would have to take care of her."

_#Happy bark#_

Sam rolled her eyes as Daphne stomped to them and crossed her arms.

"And I think her sister might disagree. Go take her back where you found her. I'm sure she'll come around to play later." Jerry-Lee looked downright heartbroken.

He again gently clasped Astoria's sleeve in his mouth and lead her to Daphne, where he released the giggling girl and gave Daphne the most pathetically sad dog look he could muster. He even started to beg with his front paws. Astoria joined him as she pouted cutely and did her most saddest puppy look too. Poor Daphne, how could she withstand this onslaught of cuteness?

And to the amazement to the great hall the ice queen snorted. "Fine, you can keep the brat, just return her in a decent shape. If not, I will take it out on your master," she said to the ghostly dog.

She was rewarded by a happy bark and lick on her face. She quickly stalked away with as much of her dignity of an ice queen as she was allowed to. Jerry-Lee then disappeared somewhere with the young snake.

She later heard that he was seen with the girl and several younger kids playing with a frisbee.

"Well, this was amusing. I wonder what the rest of the day will bring." It turned out that it brought several things, but despite the morning excitement it was tame... with the sole exception that Jerry-Lee refused to disappear, not that Sam would be complaining.

When asked, Sam freely admitted she drastically overpowered the spell. That day they had potions and the scowl Professor Snape had was really record breaking when the Jerry-Lee trotted into the classroom with her and sat next to Sam.

Professor Snape tried a very large range of spells to get rid of Jerry-Lee, from a simple _finite_ to the absolute desperation of using _evanesco_ to vanish the ghostly animal, but Jerry-Lee just sat there looking all too smug for a dog. And baring his rows of large teeth at him.

And what big teeth he had.

They were saved from Snape throwing them out as Colin 'Creepy' entered and asked for Harriet Potter to come to great hall. Jerry-Lee trotted behind them.

Colin might have tried to take another surprise photo on the way, but one very angry growl and snap of jaws might have dissuaded him from such a notion.

When Sam with Jerry reached the great hall, there were the three champions, the Headmasters, Ollivander, and the representatives of the fourth estate: some bespectacled woman and her photographer.

Sam had a bad feeling about this. Mostly because she was sure that Jerry-Lee would do something to cause utter chaos. She just knew it. She wasn't wrong.

Sam also noticed that Barty Crouch brought his own aid Percy Weasley.

The idiot also known as a Bagman greeted her, "And here comes the fourth champion."

Sam looked quizzically at him. "I am sorry, but to whom you are speaking? As far as I know, this is the **Tri**wizard Tournament, which implies three schools and there already are three champions. Or did it change when I wasn't looking?"

Crouch wasn't amused. "Your name came out of Goblet and you go to Hogwarts. Therefore, according the rules, you are a Hogwarts Champion."

"Really, but according to rules there should be only one champion per school, I attend Hogwarts and I am not of age. No one under seventeen should be chosen to be champion; by that logic I should have not been chosen as a champion. Should we get a philosopher here to solve this pickle?"

Percy grew stormy. "You are speaking to Head of a department of the Ministry of Magic, show some respect, girl."

Sam just looked at him amusedly and said, "Percy! Sorry ol boy, I didn't see you there, by the way you got something brown right there." gesturing to the right side of her nose.

Percy mumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "Again? That's third one today." While he reached for handkerchief.

Sam snickered as Perce was trying to clear the metamorphic shit he got from having his head firmly lodged inside his bosses arse out of his nose.

"So, anyhow, write me off as an unwilling participant and let's begin."

With that being said, the gathering proceeded with Ollivander checking their wands to see if they were functional and so on, then the champions and one unwilling participant were herded together for an official photo. Sam tried to back out of it, but in the moment the photo was taken she managed to dodge behind Cedric so the only things visible of her on the photo was a piece of her elbow.

Unfortunately the member of the fourth estate was done with the other champions and hurriedly introduced herself. "Rita Skeeter, _Daily Prophet_ you wouldn't protest against a short interview, would you?" She ignored Sam's protest and grabbed Sam's elbow, intending to drag Sam away for interview.

That was a mistake.

Jerry-Lee, who was sitting quietly in the corner, suddenly jumped and snatched Rita's infamous dicta quill and parchment roll from her hand and quickly, to surprise of all, ripped it apart. He then let loose a loud growl and with angry barks, he attacked, tearing a large part of Skeeters robes exposing her pale legs. Skeeter and her lackey proved that they had enough brains to start running and with a loud barking, Jerry-Lee gave a chase.

Sam observed the scene with a look that could be only described as, "Holy Motherfucker," which she uttered as the two press members were chased by a ghostly dog all over the hall. She looked at the champions and quipped weakly, "I think that my press manager disagreed. Though I am boned, they will probably roast me in their article. Still totally worth it."

Jerry-Lee returned shortly after with a two large pieces of robes from Skeeter and her lackey in his mouth. With a great pride he disposed the two pieces in front of Sam.

The three older champions exchanged looks that said, _Wish I had a press agent like this_, as Sam was petting, cooing and nuzzling the ghostly dog, telling him how a good boy he was.

"Miss Potter," Dumbledore said. As Sam lifted her head, he continued, "Would you be against if I examined your Patronus?" Sam looked at Jerry who gave an agreeable bark.

"Sure knock yourself out," She said. She had a feeling that the old man would find nothing out about Jerry.

Dumbledore started casting one diagnostic spell after another on Jerry, only to find readings that showed that this was a patronus just like any other. He did confirm, though, that only thing done out of ordinary while casting it was the fact that Sam greatly overpowered her patronus. That might explain why the dog was still here, but why did he seem to be solid when he wanted to?

Dumbledore left deep in thought. His plans for the girl were being derailed by the Tournament and she was more and more acting out in true teenage rebellion. And then this, an independently acting, semi-corporeal patronus, something even he couldn't achieve.

He had to ponder his course of action. The girl needed to malleable and willing to sacrifice herself against the Lord Voldemort to make him mortal again. That way he, the Great Dumbledore, could ride in and turn him back to light. It was a sacrifice he had to make - the needs of many outweighed needs of few. It was for the Greater Good and there was only an improbably small chance that young Harriet would survive her sacrifice. That it was why he had agreed to create the contract between her and Ron - it was simply never meant to be fulfilled and he gained a great leverage in the form of the Weasley matriarch and her youngest son, both of whom would keep an eye on Harriet and steer her in the necessary direction. And as an bonus they were an old and light pureblood family, so if the young Potter somehow survived, he always could change the clauses of the contract. They would have a lot of sons so the Potters line wouldn't die out and the added bonus was that the Potters wouldn't be marrying muggleborn again. He wasn't sure if the Potter's name could survive that. It was enough that the last Lady Potter was one, and what had she brought to the family? She nearly took all of the family's investments and moved them to muggle world, the horror. He wouldn't act as of now, though, he would just observe. He watched as Harriet and her dog trotted out of the hall. Yes he would observe for now.

Sam walked back to classes and Jerry-Lee trotted somewhere else. After the classes were over, she headed into her common room where Dobby and other house elves had provided them with a so many of couches, armchairs, and so on that the unused classroom had become their real common room.

That evening when Sam reached "their" private common room, she found a tense moment as Jerry-Lee was sitting in front of a low coffee table on which sat Hedwig. Both were locked in an intensive staring contest which was only broken when Jerry-Lee let out half whine half howl, "Aoowh?"

"Prek, prek, Hoot, hoot," countered Hedwig, and the two went into what could be only described as an discussion. It suddenly stopped as they turned their gazes at Sam and calculatedly stared at her for a long moment till she started to fidget under their collective stare, then Hedwig gave a single questioning hoot.

"Hoot?" she hooted resolutely.

"Bark," Jerry confirmed.

Their look could be described as patronizing. Sam had a feeling those two were discussing her and that she was incapable of watching herself, so those two came to agreement to share her.

Then Hedwig gave the ghostly dog snout an affectionate nuzzle before flying over to sit on Sam's shoulder and give her a similarly affectionate treatment. Sam sighed amusedly because she now had a two mother hens watching her back.

"Should I worry that you two came to agreement so fast," she asked rhetorically, "or that you two think that I am that utterly incapable of staying out of trouble?"

Jerry-Lee came and rested his head against her knee giving her a very affectionate look, giving confirming bark in the same moment that Hedwig gave a confirming hoot. As she started to pet the dog, Sam smiled. She had been afraid that her two animal friends - one from her current and one from her past life - wouldn't go along, but she realized that she was wrong as Hedwig started nuzzle her face.

With a laugh Sam opened a box, which Dobby had brought. Inside were several baggies under stasis charms. Inside of them were the samples of goods she liberated from the large black man who pointed her to Yurinov. With a long look at them she pulled out copies of the Anarchist's Cookbook and the Patriot's Cookbook and started to leaf through both, looking at some recipes and making notes. After few minutes of searching and then looking in one cookbook she had a rough idea of what she wanted and started to work.

Snape's actions today put him on the top of her shit list, and she would do something nasty right away. He wanted to take Jerry-Lee - her only connection to her old life - away from her, and while Sam liked to think she wasn't that vindictive of a person, if you asked anyone from her old life, they would say that she totally was. She wouldn't let this go without any retaliation. She wasn't a chemist, but when she was at University she lived in the dorms with a chemist for three years and she learned thing or two after, including how to build her own distillation column. They had one hidden in dorms till it exploded one nice evening and caused small fire.

What she was currently mixing was a potent combination of extract from Marihuana and LSD. She tasted the mix several times only putting it on her tongue before spitting it out to ensure that it didn't have any suspicious after taste. After an hour she was satisfied with her result. Mixed in pumpkin juice, it would be practically unnoticeable, with a little spicy after taste. The only problem was how to slip it to him. Sam didn't even finish the thought of calling Dobby in her head when Dobby appeared bouncing on his feet.

"Miss Harriet madam sir youse be calling Dobby?" The excitement was rolling from him.

"Dobby, call me just Harriet, Miss or even Ri, but to the point yes I am. Dobby can you tell me, house elves serve all the food in the great hall, correct?"

He nodded.

"Now, hypothetically speaking, if somebody slipped little something to someone's food. Would House elves cooperate?"

Dobby grew thoughtful and he shook his head. And Sam continued. "What If I said that said particular person we are speaking about is very unpleasant to all inhabitants to the school in general, and this little thing, Sam gestured to the small vial in her hand, "This could bring much entertainment for all of us."

Dobby eyes lighted in a glee. "If youse be speaking about master greasy then, mesa think that other elves be looking the other way. He is as bad as Dobbys old masters."

The last words were nearly spat out in distaste. Bingo.

"Then this will be perfect, thank you Dobby. I will call when I will need any help."

She couldn't use all of her entertainment in one day, after all.

With a few flicks of her wand Sam cleaned up. Others started to slowly to fill in, occasionally asking about Jerry-Lee. Hermione seemed highly amused by the tale that Hedwig and Jerry came to agreement about Sam.

Sam meanwhile did a little preparation for the duel, including practising several spells. She knew that taking Malfoy down hard was a must - that little twat needed to learn a lesson with messing with her. He needed to be brought down hard. She would love to get close and personal and beat the living shit out of him and then pull out all of his teeth's with a pair of rusty pliers, but she also knew that he would probably just have the pain obliviated, teeth regrown and she would have to do it all over again, and it would not be fun doing the same thing all over again.

Also, using muggle methods would probably undermine her position in the school even more, and she wanted to keep them for something much bigger. And even though she didn't like him, she didn't want to kill that albino prick. He was just a kid, dumb but still a kid.

So she decided on a easy spells from second year. She reviewed them and cast them in front of others in the room who were surprised by her speed of casting and accuracy, but it came from two things, one she was trained markswoman and second every day after her physical training she spent fifteens minutes casting at a stationary pebble, a moving pebble, and finally a moving pebble from a distance of twenty feet.

In a way, Draco reminded Sam of man in brass armour, on a bare hilltop in a storm screaming "ALL GODS ARE WANKERS." And she was a goddess of lightning that heard him and would oblige his request to shove a lightning bolt into his arse.

Still, she practised the spells and made a note to have clothes, which were for easy movement - after all, even idiots could get a lucky shot. Her preparation done, she started to ask Fred and George if they knew any spells that could create background music. The idea of playing the music from the duel in the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, was really appealing, but they didn't know. She then turned to Hermione, but she too was unaware of any such spell, but she promised she would research it. Sam had no doubts, if Hermione didn't find it she would create it.

The evening went quietly as well as following morning, the only difference was a far smaller amount of hate mail, probably because the news of her oath had spread, but an article in the _Daily Prophet_ was sure to bring more hate mail for her. Rita Skeeter really did take her pound of flesh, accusing her of somehow having found a way to pervert the ancient magical oaths and of having created a poltergeist. That would see a new spike in the hate mail. Sam was unhappy with this, but she consoled herself that she could use the hate mail later.

She usually took time to clean it from the traps and then store it. It still surprised her that most of magic folk signed their hate mail with their real names; only few individuals were more or less creative as the former written their names backwards or the latter used anagrams.

The morning class was Charms, although professor Flitwick didn't pay much attention to it as he spent half the lesson casting one diagnostic charm after another on Jerry-Lee, each more obscure than the previous, trying to figure out how it was that Jerry-Lee was still there, before he was kindly reminded that he had class to teach. Not five minutes later, Jerry-Lee snuck up on him and suddenly pulled the top book on which the small professor was sitting from under him, making the small professor disappear behind his desk. The professor took it fairly and for the benefit of class he spent the rest of the lecture on rules of duels and duelling etiquette, as it would help them understand the imminent duel.

When noon arrived, the stage in the Great Hall was set for the duel. Duelling wards were erected, and Dumbledore speech on how he disapproved of the situation. Curiously, only Harriet Potter was missing, but soon an ominous sounding Harmonica started to play, only to reveal Harriet Potter standing, leaning on the wall and playing long chilling tune on a harmonica. She then headed from her leaning position to the stage, still playing the tune. Quite a few muggleborns recognised the harmonica tune from the movie Once Upon a Time in the West.

Sam could play the harmonica because she used it from time to time as a blues player and it was better than her awful singing voice. And it was great for atmosphere - pity they hadn't been able to the soundtrack spell and she knew of nearly no one in Hogwarts with decent enough musical skills to pull it off. Neither she nor anybody she knew was skilled enough to enchant the instruments to play a good western soundtrack. So, on such a short notice, she had to make do with a harmonica. She calmly walked to the stage and abruptly finished the tune placing the harmonica in her pocket. Smirking and staring unblinkingly at Draco and he was definitely fidgeting under her stare - she was wearing contacts at the moment so the effect was even more intimidating.

Draco was indeed a very nervous fella - the eerie sounds of that instrument had really chilled him, and now Potter was standing before him, and smirking with a slightly squinted stare and not saying a word. He already got yelled at by his Uncle Severus that he got played into this duel, but he was confident that his superior breeding made him the better one in this alternation. He didn't understand why he had been made to practise so many spells by his uncle - this duel would end in no time, with him victorious He should have spent more time on his hair and on making a better taunts.

He looked at the smirking bitch and opened his mouth to wipe the smirk of her face.

"Scared, Potty? Ready to lose so your _adoring public_ will finally see how pathetic you really are?" he sneered. But his adversary didn't react except for a little twitch at the corner of her lips, making her smirk a little larger for a second.

"Well, scarhead, I'm talking to you, Too afraid of me to even answer or did that mudblooded slut of yours steal your tongue?" The only reaction was miniature twitch of lips and left eye squinted little bit more.

The prolonged stare unnerved Draco so he opened his mouth again, but Professor Flitwick who was refereeing shouted, "Mr. Malfoy mind your language or I will immediately declare Miss Potter the winner for your uncivilised language and breach of etiquette."

"You can't, Wait till my father…" Draco blurted before Flitwick cut him off.

"Yes I can and I will, if you don't cease this disrespectful behaviour. I am a five time duelling champion and an international referee. You can bring your father into this, but you will find he cannot do anything with my decisions. One more word and you I will declare you forfeiting this duel."

Professor Flitwick took a deep breath to calm himself and started to speak, going through the rules of duel, stating that the duel continued until one of them was incapacitated, all unforgivables were banned, and so on.

Once he finished, he erected the duelling wards around the platform and idly noticed that Harriet opened her robes to reveal that she was wearing a hip wand holster like if she was in western and that her hand hovered over it. Her eyes never left Draco. Draco smirked; now he was sure he had an upper hand. He was wearing a wrist holster, but rules stated that in this case he had to have his hands down alongside his body. Professor Flitwick then asked if both duellists understood the rules, Sam just nodded, while Draco gave a verbal response.

When the countdown reached the end Sam went for her wand, but unlike Draco she didn't wait until her wand was lined with her target to start casting first spell. It was simple piercing charm from first year, which had minimalistic wand movement. It caught Draco's left foot, piercing it and leaving relatively neat small hole. Draco screamed from pain, but it wasn't her last spell. The second spell that left her wand was stinging jinx, again from their first year DADA, but in this case it was tad overpowered, so it roughly equalled to a sting by an pissed off hornet and unfortunately for Draco her aim was true, as it hit him to his groin. With that Draco fell to the ground clutching the throbbing area and dropping his wand.

Sam then casually summoned the fallen wand, using the _accio_ spell that was supposed to be taught near the end of this year, and with that the duel ended

Sam smirked at her downed target who was curled up in foetal position and crying. She twirled her wand, blowing the imaginary smoke from its tip, before with another twirl she holstered it. Meanwhile professor Flitwick declare her the winner.

She was just about to turn when Jerry-lee trotted up to her with a cowboy Stetson hat in his mouth. It was very similar to one Clint Eastwood wore in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, she saw with corner of her eye that Angelina and Hermione were giving her small salutes. Sam bit back her laugh and took the offered hat, placing it on her head.

Jerry gave an approving bark before he trotted over to Draco lift his leg and let out an ghostly stream of urine over his head before bounding away. She looked at Professor Flitwick, who just cleaned his throat and tentatively asked. "Miss Potter, aren't you forgetting something?"

She gave him a confused look and professor gestured to Draco's wand she was still having in her hand she looked at Draco who was now on stretcher just to be transported to Hospital wing.

With a thoughtful look she looked at the wand in her left hand, before she looked at the wand taking the tip into her fingers with her other hand slightly bend it to test it how supple it was. It would be a great insult to break it, she considered the pros and cons, she could see as Draco's eyes widened and he breathed quiet, "no".

She turned a bit then made her decision and threw the wand to the stretcher before speaking first words of the duel. "Be careful little Drake, as next time I will break it along with you." With that being said she turned on her heel and walked away, hopefully having set Draco for few months out of her way. She didn't know it yet, but she would have deal with him again, and soon.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Chapter Eight

The hat stayed on her head for the rest of the day. Sam knew it was just transfigured and not permanent, but she took great joy from wearing it and planned on buying one. She even left a subtle hint to Hermione and Luna that if they wanted to buy her one for Christmas, she would be overjoyed.

The hat not only looked cool, it made her feel nostalgic because it brought back memories of her father and the times they spent together.

Both her father and her mother were immigrants from Czechoslovakia who escaped the country after the events of Prague Spring in 1968 escalated and the Warsaw Pact armies invaded Czechoslovakia. On his flight to the US, her father met a frightened, freshly graduated medical student and her brother who had been facing a long prison time for his political activities. The two bonded together because of their tough situation and in just two years they married. Sam was their only child.

Her father had a great love of movies and he regularly took his daughter with him to cinemas. It became a tradition of theirs to spend weekends together holed in a cinema.

Her father was especially partial to Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. She loved those days they spent together in a half empty cinema, watching as Clint Eastwood and others were dishing their own brand of justice. When she lured Draco into a duel, it was just too much not to pass up using the western clichés, even if it was sole for her own personal amusement. It was her own duel at high noon.

Pity she didn't have any good six-shooters. Her thoughts wandered a bit at the thought of getting one before getting back on track.

She remembered the lone wolf types in those movies and, as a general rule, they usually didn't live long in real life. Regular humans were not bulletproof and did not have infinite amounts of ammunition - they actually needed to reload, not like those Bruce Willis type heroes in movies.

However, after her betrayal by one of her own protégés in her previous life, she sure could relate with that sentiment. Sure, she had her fair share of solo missions, even some behind enemy lines to assassinate terrorist leaders, but she still had a proper support and she preferred working with a team when possible. Right of now she had to make due, but still she had a great advantage in her training and in her secret weapon, Dobby.

Sam was interrupted from her reminiscing when Hedwig landed before her with a letter from her dog-father. In his letter he announced that he would try to contact her in person as soon as possible before first task.

Sam thought that was foolish move. She understood it, but with the basically kill on sight order on his ass, the move was risky as hell for someone in his position. Nevertheless, she could understand why he was doing it. She would have to look into his situation more... at the least she could try to get him a new identity in the muggle world.

Yurinov might prove useful one the few things she managed to find out about the elderly Russian was that he was an ex-KGB agent who started to work for himself after the fall of the communist regime. She might be able to get new identity for Sirius from him, after all magicals didn't do fingerprints or DNA so it wouldn't be so hard.

For some reason, it seemed the elderly Russian gun reseller believed she was some kind of secret Russian project to create an ultimate assassin - someone trained from earliest childhood and gone rogue, currently hiding from her handlers in the UK. Sam had a sneaky suspicion that long time ago he must have known about such a project, and it probably was one of the reasons why he left his country's service to start his own business. At least, that's what he insinuated that during their conversation. He obviously wanted to help her because the prices he offered were very low - even lower than she expected to pay, as if she bought the weapons legally, and the prices were even lower than for individual pieces bought in surplus for the army.

The next few days it seemed that her duel made an impact on her reputation as most of the students gave her a wide berth, as it seemed they got the message not to mess with her, but then few days later her moments of peace were interrupted by Draco in the potion class.

They were making moonseed poison antidote and as they were just finishing, Sam noticed in her excellent peripheral vision that Draco was trying to reach inconspicuously into his robes. In this case the key word was trying because he was failing miserably in the subtlety department. Sam was pretty sure he was up to something because Draco was as subtle as a sledgehammer. He was holding the object in his right hand and from his stance it was clear that he was going to throw something into her cauldron.

"_Wait for it,"_ she thought as she eyed Draco.

"_Wait…"_

Draco was preparing to throw it, and Sam moved a little so he had a better target and she was in better position to catch it.

"_And here it goes…"_

"_Gotcha."_ Sam snatched the flying object from the air. She briefly looked at it... runespoor fang, if she was not mistaken. Combined with her concoction it would cause a very violent reaction, probably sending her to infirmary for a few days at least, maybe even for weeks.

"Potter," Snape roared.

"Yes, Professor?" Sam asked with a pleased smile on her lips, she knew it wound him up.

His sneer deepened, "What is it in your hand?"

"It seems as a small piece of...runespoor fang… Sir." That Sir was added as an afterthought. Snape's sneer deepened.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for that cheek. And why, pray to tell, are you holding an ingredient that is not required for this potion?" he asked with barely disguised anger.

"Thank you, sir," Sam said with a cheerful tone. "And to answer your question it seems this was another of Draco's attempts to lose his magic. Sir." That brought a stop to Snapes face and Draco looked rattled.

"Explain." Snape hissed.

Sam replied in in the most monotonous voice she could muster."Triwizard tournament rulebook, Chapter 7, page 83, article number 4, amendment 6, addendum of rules from 1594 and I quote. 'Anyone causing a Champion enough serious harm to prevent said champion's participation in a task, shall suffer the same consequences that would be enacted on said champion for not participating, resulting in the loss of magic of said person.' End of quote" Sam had to suppress a giggle as Draco's complexion now matched his hair colour.

Snape opened his mouth closed it, before he uttered, "Twenty points from Gryffindor for the cheek and a detention tonight, get back to work." He seemed to be taken aback by the revelation. Draco looked scared, and not a few Slytherins were looking thoughtfully at her. Sam noted that Snape was furiously going through some book on the table, frowning even more when he stopped and read another part looking more hatefully at her.

Hermione carefully leaned to her and asked, "Ri, is what you said for real?"

Sam just nodded. Hermione's mind started to work and kicked into higher gear when a literal light bulb lighted over her head.

"So that means that you hoped that, if you didn't win in the duel, you counted on Draco that he would try to curse you badly enough to prevent you from competing, and that would leave him a squib? A win-win situation."

"Life has its little bonuses, innit a truth?" Sam said with a slight grin.

"You are one crafty snake in a lion skin that's for sure," said Hermione.

Sam just grinned more.

When the class ended, Snape gave Sam an A even though her potion was the same quality as Hermione's. The evening detention was mind-numbing as she had to clean frog eyes for two hours, but Snape didn't look at her much during the detention. He just locked her in the classroom and after two hours let her out.

Strangely enough the day's altercation brought Sam a new level of respect from Slytherins as it seemed that quite few of them reached the same conclusion as Hermione had, and during dinner several of them gave her a looks that seemed as if they were re-evaluating her in a new light.

The next day brought interesting news as Sam got a letter from Hagrid, telling her to get down to his hut that evening with her cloak. She did so as she was intrigued enough from the letter.

From his hut there she followed Hagrid and the French headmistress into the Forbidden Forest to see several dragon handlers trying to quietly prepare pens with four dragons. The beasts were not happy campers, and now neither was Sam. She had to face dragon! Once back in the dorm she started to pace before an old movie quote entered her head. "_We gonna need a bigger boa_t."

Her mind whirled. "_Bigger boat equals in this case into bigger gun than my usual workpieces_"", with that in mind she dove into her trunk, going into the special compartment from which she pulled a specific drawer. Inside was her Barrett M95, bolt-action heavy sniper rifle. She looked at it before pulling out a box of ammunition - she had AP rounds, which should do the job since they were a variant of the infamous Mk. 211 round.

Sam supposed that she better find some kind of target to test the round against. Other alternatives would then require that she get some kind of RPG for the job.

She looked around at the others who were all asleep. As she placed the rifle back and went to bed, she considered the delivery and possible methods of delivery.

At the breakfast Sam related her encounter the previous night to Luna and Hermione. Both girls looked slightly panicked, and she tried to calm them by explaining that she had a plan, although the plan might include a death of the dragon. Luna didn't like the sound of that, but she would rather see one dead dragon than her big sister mutilated or worse dead. Hermione looked sceptical about Sam's plan as her experience with Potter's plans wasn't all that great, so she offered her a help with research In the library.

Sam was actually pretty impressed with Hermione's intimate knowledge of the library, as the girl immediately started to make list of possible books. Sam asked for books on species and on anatomy to identify the dragons she saw and to learn about their weaknesses. She also prepared herself to make a test run of her plan in the R.o.R next evening, but then her gaze ended on Hufflepuff table.

Sam was relatively sure that Karakoff and Maxime told their respective charges about the Dragons, but what about the poster boy? She internally shook her head. She was sure he wouldn't know.

With a sigh she lifted herself from her seat, saying to Hermione and Luna that she will be back in a sec, before heading to Badgers' table.

Several Badgers placed themselves between her and Diggory.

She rolled her eyes. "Really?" she asked.

"What do you want?" asked one of them aggressively - Stephen, if she wasn't mistaken.

"Right now? Good bottle of Irish whiskey, a box of hand rolled Cubans and nice adventurous busty girl would be nice for a start. Got any?" That left the badgers sputtering and nearby Susan Bones looked little scandalised, blushing like a tomato as Sam gave the busty redhead a saucy smile and a wink.

"No? Pity, then I would like a word with Diggory in private."

"He has no time for dykes, like you." Ernie sneered.

"Dyke? That's all you got? Been called worse, posing for the girls are we? Word of advice, it won't work, take it as I probably had more girls over the summer than you ever will in your whole life. Still it doesn't change the fact that I will be speaking with Diggory no matter your opinion. Now would you kindly fuck off, before I hurt you.

The seventh year sneered, and Sam tensed as she quickly evaluated the threat level. She was skilled in hand to hand, but they were too close to her, so she was just preparing for a brawl.

"Oh you think you can, cheat?"

"Right now I can think off about sixteen different ways on how to incapacitate or kill you with my bare hands in one move, before you can even make move, and I am inclined to use the more lethal methods. Make. My. Day. I need some physical workout."

He shifted nervously from the oddly specific threat.

"Seventeen methods. This one in particular is crushing your balls with my steel toed boot, with a swift kick." she added helpfully.

In that moment Diggory decided to act and placed calming hand on the seventh year shoulder before speaking.

"You wish to speak with me?" he asked.

"Yes. In private." Diggory gave Sam a long look she rolled her eyes and said.

"It's not a trap of any kind I just wish to exchange some words in private that is all, I swear."

He looked mollified somewhat

"All right lead the way."

Stephen tried to follow, but Cedric gave him a look and shook his head.

They reached the nearest empty classroom. Once they entered Sam bluntly began.

"Fine, now I am quite certain that you are still in the dark concerning the first task, right?"

He scowled. "And from your words I presume you are not, you cheated."

"This isn't about cheating, it is to levelling the playing field as I reckon that Delacour and Krum already know. Its dragons"

"What?" he asked, shocked.

"The first task will involve getting an object from a nesting dragon," she said again, slowly.

"The others cheated too!" he complained.

"Oh for the fucks sake. Focus you idiot, nesting dragons, this isn't about cheating, but that you will face a nesting dragon in a week. Now, I don't give a flying fuck for you moral high ground, it is about making sure you are not flying blindly and getting roasted in the process. Take it or leave it, I don't care anymore, I am done here," she said with a huff turning on her heel.

The last words Cedric heard before the doors slammed behind the retreating, unwilling, muttering champion were "Stupid, moralistic, high ground taking tit!"

His mind whirled on the fact that he was to meet nesting dragon in a week.

Sam stomped back to the Great Hall muttering insults about the Badgers' house when someone blocked her way.

It was Stephen.

"Where's Cedric," he snarled.

"I ate him, with peas and glass of Chianti," she snarked at him.

"You little…" He didn't finish his threat as he grabbed Sam's hand and in that moment she reacted.

In a span of seconds Stephen was lying on the hall's floor with his right arm dislocated from its shoulder and his nose broken, with Sam leaning over him.

"Now listen, you prick, your pal is fine and in much better state then you are physically speaking. Mentally that's a different pickle, as he now he has a lot on his mind. In regards to you, if anybody asks you just fell from the stairs or this will be just a love tap compared to what I will do to you. Capiste?" He just whimpered in pain.

"Good, now go to infirmary to get yourself fixed." With that she strolled away and re-joined Luna and Hermione at breakfast. Stephen was indeed cowed enough and didn't tell anybody about the alternation.

Later that evening Sam tested her plan in the R.o.R., and it was a success. Knowing that she had a plan that should work calmed her a little. Two days before the task she received a letter in the morning that Sirius wanted her to be in the common room at midnight because he would be using semi legal connection to floo call there.

Unfortunately, the floo call was brought short because the red garbage disposal decided to stick his nose where it didn't belong and interrupted her before anything meaningful could be said. She felt the need to strangle the redheaded idiot because she had only managed to exchange greetings with Sirius.

She decided to send him a detailed letter to arrange a meeting near the Shrieking Shack, in a week during the Hogsmeade weekend.

Hopefully she would be able to convince him to visit Yurinov so he could get a new identity that would allow him he could walk freely in muggle world. Maybe she'd discuss if a plastic surgery with him if everything else failed, assuming of course that he was willing to consider the option.

Time flew by and the day of the first task came.

In the early morning Sam took Dobby to hide a large rifle bag near forbidden forest. During the holidays she had stopped at an airsoft/paintball gear shop in London and bought a black tactical uniform, cargo pants and tactical long-sleeved shirt, with a small English flag patch on her sleeve and small patch with her new surname on the same sleeve, as well as combat boots with an outer dagger sheath with her FS Dagger in it. Black gloves and underarm holster with her wand and a dark blue beret completed the outfit. Over all o this she wore loose open robes not dissimilar to a long trench coat. By this time she was mostly wearing contacts, but because it was sunny on the day of the first task she took a pair of aviator style sunglasses.

In this outfit she walked down to breakfast, only eating lightly while calmly reassuring Hermione and Luna. The twins, Ginny and rest of her quidditch team all stopped by to wish= her good luck, and just before Professor McGonagall came down to collect her, Hedwig flew in to land on Sam's shoulder and nipped Sam's ear hard, giving the witch a hard look. Sam interpreted it as saying that she shouldn't dare to get hurt. When McG came to her to take her to the arena Jerry-Lee trotted next to her, but right outside Hogwarts he bounded away as he spotted Skeeter and her Lackey. With a loud barking he ran after them, chasing them away.

"_Well, no nice articles about me in the future, that's for sure_, _He really doesn't like them_" Sam thought wryly

The professional idiot also known as Ludo Bagman had taken over from McG to lead her to champions tent. On the way he bombarded her with a billion of question about her plan, but she kept her silence. In the tent there were the three other champions, all of them visibly pale and nervous.

After a long-winded speech from Ludo they had to pick a model dragons from the bag. She picked last, and the Potter luck struck again because she picked the meanest of them: a Hungarian Horntail. This highly magically resistant beast had the hottest fire, it was fast and manoeuvrable nimble flier, and its mace-like tail posed a very large threat on the ground. However, it had one real disadvantage, namely that its natural habitat was the mountains and it preferred to fly, so it wasn't as thick skinned as other dragon species in order to keep its mobility high. This was ideal for Sam, considering her plan.

The other champions were pacing around or doing something to combat their nervousness. Sam, on the other hand, relaxed in the chair and reached into a pocket to pull out a Cuban cigar before lighting it and calmly puffed it. The others stared at her seemingly serene and unconcerned composure.

The first cannon blast sounded and the first to leave to battle his dragon was Cedric. Sam listened to the commentary with one ear; apparently Cedric used a Transfiguration spell to change a rock into a dog to distract the dragon. The dragon took the bait, and Cedric went for the golden egg. Halfway through, the dragon turned its attention back to Cedric and burned his face, but he still managed to get away.

The second cannon blast sounded, calling out Fleur as the second victim of this insanity. She enchanted the dragon to sleep, but while retrieving the golden egg, the dragon snored and let out a jet of flame that set her skirt alight. She managed to extinguish the flame, but not without giving the audience a bit of a free show.

The third cannon blast sounded and Sam was left alone. To pass the time she started to hum "Highway to Hell," pretending that she was playing the guitar. She absentmindedly petted Jerry who had returned, offering her torn strips from the robes from the annoying journalists. He seemed unhappy with them and now he was sitting next to her his head on her knee.

Krum used the Conjunctivitis curse to blind the dragon and retrieve his egg, but it seemed that he would be penalised half of his points because the dragon stumbled around and smashed half of her real eggs.

And then the cannon blasted for the fourth time, calling her to the action. Sam stood up and said to Jerry, "Well, that's it old pal, wish me luck."

_#Bark#_ Jerry barked encouraging his mistress.

"Thanks. Go to Hermione and Luna, keep them from worrying too much."

Sam calmly walked to the arena and cut the burning end from her cigar before tucking it in her pocket for later. She shed her robe and ran for cover behind the rocks, from where she took a careful peak as the beast roared. In the background Ludo Bagman's voice thundered.

"_Ladies and gentlemen the fourth contester arrives to our arena to face one of the fiercest dragons of them all: a. Hungarian Horntail! Potter takes cover to scout the situation, no doubt preparing a spectacular performance. And Miss Potter casts her first spell."_

Sam cast her first spell: "Accio bag," she shouted, and not a few seconds later her bag flew into her hands. She caught it and went for the other rock for better cover. She checked the insides of the bag.

"_And Miss Potter casts accio to summon an elongated bag. What is in it? A broom? Maybe we shall see soon."_

Sam pointed her wand on her throat and cast Sonorous spell.

"_And now miss Potter relocates with the mysterious bag and casts a spell on herself."_

She couldn't resist and spoke out, her voice carrying loud and clear over the arena.

"**Testing, 1…2…3 testing is this thing on?**"

"_In an unexpected move Miss Potter casts Sonorous spell on herself. What is the purpose of this? We shall see and it will be revealed soon without a doubt."_

Apparently her joke brought few chuckles. It was she then that focused and closed her eyes, seeing only snakes behind her eyelids, and spoke in Parseltongue.

"**§Oh great dragon, I ask you, the humans placed a fake egg into your nest…§"**

Quite a few people shuddered as they heard loud hissing coming from the last champion.

The rock Sam was hiding behind was hit by a blast of fire as an answer. The dragon either didn't understand parseltongue or wasn't inclined to cooperate, and Sam shouted back in English.

"**Hey, I just asked no need to be rude…Bitch. Plain no would suffice. Plan B it is."**

"_In a bold move Miss Potter used her parseltongue abilities, probably trying to negotiate with the dragon, but as it seems the negotiation failed and the dragon sent a stream of fire her way." _Bagman shouted, fake professional excitement dripping from his voice. "_Will we finally see what is in the bag now?"_

Sam swiftly pulled the rifle from the bag and unfolded the bipod the quickly loaded it. She cautiously peaked from behind the boulder and look at the flag on the post to check the wind. She rolled from behind the cover, stopping on the grass and setting the rifle into firing position before pulling the bolt and loading a round into chamber. Taking aim, she repeated the mantra that had been drilled into her when she first went to sniper training.

"_Deep breathe in…_

_and out…" _she thought as her heartbeat thundered in her ears, ba-dum, ba-dum.

"_And Potter pulls some kind of black pole from the bag, and places some box in it, and now she is in the open, lying down with the pole. In the open ladies and gentlemen, not even hundred yards from the dragon. In the open people!"_

The Dragon was rearing its head back, taking a breath for another stream of fire, when Sam's finger tightened and pulled the trigger.

"_Time to say HI to my little friend._"

The gunshot was deafening.

The bullet flew true, but as the dragon was rearing its head back and up, it missed its intended target and hit the centre of the beast's neck just below the head.

Mk 211 Raufoss is often called as HEIAP for its explosiveness and armour piercing properties. The bullet pierced the beast's neck before exploding, hitting the spine and tearing both pharynx and larynx.

The beast fell down in agony. Hearing the beast gurgling and choking on its own blood was rather chilling.

It wasn't pretty.

Sam quickly reached for the bolt chambering another round and firing again this time not missing the eye.

The bullet entered the beast's head through its eye and mercifully ended the beasts suffering.

"_Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, the dragon falls down and it is apparently dead, Miss Potter kills the dragon with... uhmm... ehmh... some kind of metal pole? Anybody knows what is it?" _Bagman commented little bit lamely.

Sam looked up from her sights and her mind whirled.

"_I just slayed a fucking dragon. I should say something memorable, something cool aww hell screw it."_

"**Yippee-ki-yay, Bitch**." With that said she chambered another round and stood up, with flick of her wand ended the sonorous charm on herself. She quickly threw the bag over her shoulder before picking the rifle and carefully ran toward the nest, mindfully keeping an eye on the dragon in case it wasn't as dead as it seemed to be.

The crowd was silent from the shock. Sam could swear she heard Hagrid sobbing and she felt bad for the big man a little.

She picked up the egg and jogged back to the entrance, now holding the rifle by its carry handle in a more relaxed stance. She walked away not even caring and her scores and ignoring Bagmans babbling as she entered the tent.

Madam Pomfrey ran towards her casting several diagnostic charms and frowned when they showed that Sam was in perfect health with only slightly elevated levels of adrenaline.

"You are not hurt, but, but they say, you killed a dragon and you are not hurt… what were the odds." Madame Pomfrey mumbled shaking her head.

Sam quipped, "For that, you can thank Barrett firearms manufacturing, full of good ole American know-how and insanity." Sam placed the rifle into her bag before walking through the exit when suddenly two bodies collided into her. She returned the embrace to Hermione and Luna with large smile.

"I told you two that I would be fine. Now somewhere there's a large rare steak with chips with my name on it. Come on, killing things always makes my H&amp;H urges rise."

"Do you know your score?" asked Hermione.

Luna interrupted before Sam could answer. "Better question is, do you even care?"

"Noppers."

"Thought so," said Luna before Hermione asked.

"I explained to Luna what you used, but tell me where did you get that? What was it, an artillery rifle?"

"Anti-material sniper rifle, and I bought it from a Russian gentleman, real cheap," replied Sam nonchalantly.

Unfortunately, the moment was interrupted by a mostly unwelcome voice. They turned to see Ron blocking the direct way to castle. His face had an unusual expression, he was either suffering from constipation or he was trying looking apologetic, Sam wasn't sure.

"Hey Hars, that was wicked, I sups you didn't cheat after all. I thought Charlie was joking bout the dragons. When he wrote me after the choosing, you know"

Sam blinked and exchanged incredulous looks with Hermione and Luna. "_The bastard knew about the Dragons? In advance?"_

Sam eyed the crowd that was getting closer. The red food disposal unit took their silence as a sign that they had forgiven him and continued.

"So I sup's that I forgive you and you forgive me right, and we will be mates, just like the old times."

They stared. Before Sam began, "Mia did you hear what I did?"

"Yeah," replied Hermione. Sam's gaze went to Luna who nodded. "Unfortunately."

"Okay, Mia, sorry in advance for the language." Sam took a deep breath.

"Hell no! We are no mates or friends you dim-witted moron. Now fuck off you useless wally wanker, or you don't understand the simple concept you gormless git? You disgust me from your skanky lack of hygiene, through your pikey attitude to life, to your shite for brains you pillock! Now get out of my sight you barmy blighter or I will use you as another target practice you fecking prat …" Sam stopped for a second before continuing.

"On second thought… **Jerry-Lee**! Get that smeghead" With that, Jerry-Lee started to growl and stalked towards Ron.

Ron showed that he might have a brain cell or two when he started to run.

Sam looked at nearing crowd and said, "Come on let's get out of here."


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Sorry for long wait I had few life changing events with me leaving university, breaking my hand and my grandfathers passing, all of this kept me from writing. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

**Chapter Nine**

The Tournament officials finally found the errant champion in the Hogwarts kitchen where she, in the company of her two friends, was demolishing rather large steak with chips, moaning appreciatively with every bite. They weren't looking very happy with her, though it seemed that they thinned a bit as of now there was only Crouch with his lapdog Percy, Dumbledore and Hagrid.

"_They are looking upset, wonder why?_" Sam thought wryly as she speared another bite she cut from the steak that was getting smaller.

"Miss Potter," they thundered together.

Sam gulped and eyed another piece of steak on her fork mournfully, before she answered.

"Here, unfortunately, what can I do for you?" she replied before she placed the piece in her mouth and started to chew. It seemed that it angered them even more when she started chewing right after answering.

"Do you know what have you done?" thundered ministerial moustache, also known as Mr Crouch.

Sam looked him in the face chewed few times, before gulping and simply answering.

"Yep." And she started to cut another piece.

They didn't look amused by her flippant answer.

"Miss Potter, would you kindly stop eating when we are speaking with you?"

Sam swallowed again, "What, I am hungry, after all I just slew a big bad dragon. I have to calm the urges you know."

Mr Crouch changed several colours, and Hagrid sniffed.

"You just killed a nesting dragon! That dragon belonged to the Romanian Dragon Reserve and was one of the more rarerest breeds! Do you have any idea how much it will cost the ministry to replace it?" he fumed.

Hagrid spoke, his eyes still watery from the tears with a Hagrid-sized hanky in his hand, normal people would call it small tablecloth. "Now wa' it necessary to kill the wee little Dragon, it wouldn't hurt ya, it wa' just playing. It meant nuthin by the flames." Hagrid hiccupped a little.

Sam felt little bad for the big man, but she knew that Hagrid's perception of what was a nice and cuddly pet was, well, at least pretty screwed as a corkscrew. But she tried to hone her point as gently as she could to him and to misdirect the rest of them a bit.

"Hagrid, I know it is hard for you and I feel for your loss I really do, but you have to understand that I asked the dragon very politely and her answer was one that I wouldn't repeat even in an impolite society. Even in yours," she added as she spied Snape and continued ignoring the Potion Master's outburst.

"Truth is that she was a dangerous beast with no possibility for me to get around it without ending up more than extra crispy. I am sorry but there was no other way. And, if you want to blame someone concretely, blame Mr. Crouch here."

Hagrid seemed to think about it for a second before he slowly nodded and Crouch bristled. "My fault?" the Ministry Moustache asked.

"Oh, not only yours, but all you judges. You don't get it, do you? If you hadn't insisted on getting more publicity by making me compete, you could have excluded me from this Tournament up to an hour after the choosing. But no, let's have the infamous Girl Who Lived compete, so you forced me to use the methods I had at my disposal as I don't have enough knowledge, despite my best efforts. So I had to resort to methods I did."

Then she added "It tried to kill me; I just returned the favour."

He seemed to bristle at her answer and the others seemed to ponder her words before they could say anything she added, "Bottom line is that I only did what was necessary for me to survive, spare me your moralistic tirades that it could be done some other way. Now it's too late for the dragon anyway. I'm not a proper champion just your little social experiment, so don't bother with the scores I don't particularly care. Now if that's all. I would like to finish my steak."

Then she stopped for a second and added, "And if I am not mistaken, according to Ministerial laws the carcass belongs to me as I slayed it, do expect someone who will represent me to collect the carcass and render it down. Momma needs a pair of dragon hide boots." The last part was said more to herself than to others. Crouch angrily stomped away with Percy in tow who was strangely silent during the conversation, making notes and looking disapproving

Now the only one left was Dumbledore - Hagrid left, probably to mourn the dragon, and Snape had been silenced by Dumbledore so he skulked away.

Bumblebee man had disappointed face number 5 - if Sam was mistaken the man had probably several dozens of standardised facial expression.

"I am very disappointed in you young lady," he started.

Sam lowered her fork looked at him and her gaze ended on spot over his left ear.

"Oh, let's hear it," she said nonchalantly with a drawing one delicate eyebrow, drawing small gasps from Hermione and Luna on the obvious disrespect.

Dumbledore frowned. He tried several times to prod the young woman about her use of parseltongue and killing the beast, only getting the sardonic reply that what was done was done for the competition. As for the former, she only shrugged and said that it wouldn't create any more bad press than she already had and pointed out that her ability to speak parseltongue was widely known since her second year.

All in all, he managed to get a zero of new information from his young charge, as she flat out refused to say where she got the object and didn't let him examine it. Her claim that it was a muggle weapon was preposterous, he was sure that no muggle weapon could harm dragon.

Although she did say something about _it was the one of the most powerful personal weapons in the world and could blow a man's head clean off, not caring if that particular someone was feeling lucky or not._ That sentence left him tad bit confused and it left Miss Granger in giggles, he knew it was a bluff. He would have her trunk searched for the artefact to be properly examined and then used in proper hands, his.

He left the kitchen deep in thought. He would have to ensure that young Harriet stayed for a longer period of time with her relatives, maybe nearly the whole holidays, in the hope that it would help to stomp the rebellious attitude. Then under care of Molly and her future fiancé maybe she would start to date young Ronald. The way she was hardened was as worrying as the fact that Snape's mark was getting darker - it seemed that Harriet's final destiny was coming closer. She needed to be humble and forgiving for his plans. For the greater good, she would need to set an example.

He internally let out sigh. He knew he condemned a young soul to miserable childhood, but she needed to be ready for her sacrifice for the good of the wizarding word. It pained him, but it was for the greater good.

Sam then spent a nice time with her friends in their common room, where she explained to her friends what she used and categorically refused the twins any access to the munitions, as it contained explosives and they were bad enough without any knowledge of muggle explosives. They would level the whole school, and worse she would have to listen to the fat harpy, bumblebee and others screech about some shite.

She did not want to listen to fat harpies, bumblebees and others screech about some shite, she didn't care about simply because they had their strange notion that she had something to do with it. Instead she thought to buy them good textbooks on muggle chemistry for them for their birthday. If they figure them out on their own, then she had nothing to do with it.

She knew that the twins were doing lots of their stuff based on potions, so it might be very useful for them. "_Maybe,_" she thought, "_I should also throw a some books on economics and business management. There is no class that would prepare them for venturing into the business world and opening a shop._" She also penned a quick letter to Master Smashfist and send it via Dobby as it was their agreed method of contact, while they were sending her an fake letters with statements that were intercepted by Dumbles.

In her letter Sam asked Smashfist to take care of the carcass. She knew that meat from this dragon could be consumed by humans, but only after long preparation, and the taste wasn't anything to desire, but goblins considered it delicacy. So she offered all the meat for free in exchange for their service of rendering and selling the rendered parts to the market with the exception of the skin. That would be taken to the specialised cobbler wizard who would make Sam a new pair of Dragon hide boots as well as preserving and curing some of the skin for later.

What Sam didn't know was that the price of the meat she gave the goblins greatly overshadowed the price for their services, and two weeks later she got a surprising present form the goblins in a form of goblin-made stylish Dragon hide knee high boots that had auto-sizing and protective enchantments.

The evening when she reached the Gryffindor tower, quite number of the people was celebrating her kill and wanted to know how she did it. Considering that most of them never apologised for their hostile behaviour towards her over the last weeks, and some were still wearing the Potter Stinks buttons that very morning she called them hypocritical shites and told them to go hang as she stormed out. That left the Gryff common room apprehensive.

The next morning's paper was a surprisingly moderate and factual report of the tournament, and it seemed that Skeeter was quite apprehensive about writing something negative against Sam. Sam wondered briefly why as she scratched Jerry between his ears.

Sam didn't know it, but Jerry-Lee had taken to trying to find Skeeter whenever she was near castle and tried to eat her. He didn't like anybody who dared to hurt his mistress and the attempt during the task was number five. It drove home the idea for the Skeeter that the dog menace might be mollified if she stopped throwing dirt and tried to put her in a more positive light. Well, maybe it was the attempt three, when he nearly ate her in her animagus form right after she finished the interview with her unnamed source, Draco Malfoy.

What really cheered Sam was that Ron was in the hospital wing - when running from the Jerry-Lee, he had broken both his legs because he fell from the stairs.

Sam was broken from her musings as Hedwig landed with a reply from Sirius in which he agreed to her plan to meet him. Hermione also reminded her that Vector's special arithmancy lesson was happening that evening. She had done as Sam asked and asked if there was an opened spot at the table, and the reply was yes, and the entering fee was bit pricey, whole 10 Galleons.

What she found during the day was that there was a quite a shift in the mood of the houses towards her. Hufflepuffs were looking at her quite strangely, as if they were torn, but ever since she told Cedric about the dragons, none of them were wearing badges and now surprisingly quite few looked like they were going to come up to her and apologise. Ravens also stopped wearing their badges and none of them looked confrontational; maybe killing a dragon without breaking sweat made the point. Slytherins looked a lot less confrontational than usual, but still not really friendly, and Gryffs were all looking chastised from the bollocking she gave them.

Except her group, only the first years earned her forgiveness. The whole first year of lions came tearfully towards her in the morning asking for forgiveness. Taking into account that they admitted that they were new and didn't really have time to get to know her, she forgave them.

In the morning she also got a short letter from Gringotts via Dobby. In it they thanked her for the meat and confirmed that the dragon's carcass was taken care of. There was also a small note that her status was changed, but they were keeping it under the wraps. Also they asked if she wanted to preserve the skull for later hanging on a wall, but she refused, as she had no desire for having the skull hanging on her wall.

Sam was standing in the classroom idly thinking while flipping a Galleon in the air She was getting curious and little bit reminiscent again, her uncle Charles was a conman and he taught his niece a quite a few tricks about card games. She smiled as she watched as an assortment of students came, her smile even grew bigger as several faces showed. One of her uncle's mottos of life sounded in her ears_, _

"_I consider, that it is morally wrong to let a loud-mouthed sucker to keep his money_."

It was a great pity that his last con didn't work out - he was selling a Brooklyn Bridge to one Asian Tycoon when it turned out that the tycoon tipped the cops and his assistant was undercover cop all along. It was pity because he had several years earlier apparently sold the leaning tower of Pisa and Washington monument.

Draco was one of those who showed up and he was the epitome of that saying. Sam internally smirked at him. Along with him was Daphne Greengrass and sixth year Adrian Pucey representing Slytherin. It was an interesting that these two Slytherins belonged to the ones who were the most inoffensive against her. Greengrass was cold and distant, but she never taunted her or did anything malevolent towards her. She even didn't have the badge, which spoke quite highly about her character. Pucey was the same and on top of that a very good Quidditch player.

Hufflepuff was represented by Sam's all-time _favourite_ Seventh year, Stephen Rodgers, whose nose still seemed bit crooked, and lovely Sue Bones, who seemed bit nervous.

Ravens had the largest representation with Roger Davis, Marietta "_Raven who will be soon plucked clean like a goos_e" Edgecombe - Sam internally sneered at the book thief - fifth year perfect Anthony Goldstein, and sixth year Eddie Carmichael. Gryffindor was only represented by her.

The professor Vector arrived, the entrance fee was collected, and Draco made few snide comments on Sam about affording such money to be wasted, which she duly noted and ignored. Soon the chips and cards were dealt and the first round started. They were sticking to the classic five-card poker with professor Vector serving as a dealer and bank.

Over the course of the first ten games Sam lost a significant percentage of her entry funds, but it was intentional. She was testing her opponents, finding their tells, how they behaved in certain situations and reached several conclusions.

Draco was an open book - she could tell what cards he had just from looking at him - and the person with the hardest to read was Sue Bones.

She had a very good poker face, and Sam noticed that she had a good eye for tells of the others, but she needed learn to control her breathing in tense situations because she had a tendency to hold her breath. Sam noticed it when her eyes drifted to the redhead's generous other "eyes".

Daphne Greengrass was the second hardest player to read, though she also had a nervous tick, in nervous situation she tended to do this a little lick of her front teeth.

During these warm-up games, Sam developed several fake subtle tells, it was one of her habits to create a subtle tells for herself and in the middle of the game, she completely changed it often, confusing the hell out of the other players. Stephen dropped rather soon after one really rash all in against Sue Bones.

Right now Draco was raising by the bets went there were nearly ten Galleons in the pot. Draco was a sucker of player, only raising when he thought he had a good hand.

Most of them stayed out except her and Pucey.

They saw his raise.

Sam looked at her cards. Internally she smiled. She knew that Draco had a semi good hand maybe three of a kid or maybe even a full house. Pucey didn't look very content with his cards. She asked for one card, Draco did too, and Pucey took three. He looked at them and folded.

Draco grinned and bet all he had, which wasn't much, before sneering, "Scared Scarhead? Think you would have the stones go all in?. You…" He didn't finish. Sam didn't even look at the new card she got; she just pushed all her remaining chips towards the pot without saying anything.

Draco looked stunned before he said, "The fame really bleached your brain. Read 'em and weep. Won't you turn your the card to face your defeat? Full house! How can you beat that?"

Sam just stared. He had a two threes and three sevens. Even idiots got lucky.

With a shrug she said, "I got two pairs." She turned over two cards. Draco started laughing.

"Two red nines…" She deliberately prolonged this, letting Draco reach for the pot when turning the other two cards.

"And two black nines."

"Fat load of good it…" Draco froze as he finally got it. And looked at smirking Sam. "_And the gravedigger makes a comeback_." Sam thought gleefully. There was a reason that her poker nickname was gravedigger. First she loses nearly all her funds while observing the others before making a startling upturn, crushing her opponents.

Sam raked the chips and threw the few remaining chips to Draco. He now had only enough funds for one blind, which meant he was effectively out of the game unless some miracle didn't happened.

"You cheated!" he cried outraged.

"Drakey, you have to learn to lose with a certain amount of grace. And by now you should be used to losing, non?" Sam said with a shake of head, dismissing the boy who was ranting that he will tell his father. Vector was smirking at the scene, Sam had a feeling like the woman always knew which card was which, from the way how her lips were moving when she mixed and dealt the cards Sam guessed that she was counting the cards.

He tried to get into the game, but right after he looked at his cards he threw them away and stomped off.

"Mr Pucey, Miss Greengrass, I have to ask, how on earth you can put up with that fool?" pointedly ignoring sputtering Draco who just had just risen from his chair. Daphne just shrugged indifferently. And Pucey didn't comment.

Sam briefly wondered and decided to deal Malfoy's reputation another kick.

As the cards were dealt she for another round she asked, "So, Mr Pucey, I heard that the Wimbourne Wasps will be drafting you after you finish your education here, is that true?"

Pucey looked bit uncomfortable. The lone Gryff slayed a Dragon yesterday and had showed more cunning than an average snake over the course of last weeks. He was bit nervous about answering even though the questioner was leisurely leaning back in her chair, looking at him inquiringly.

"Yes," he forced to keep his voice calm, "it is the truth that I have already signed the deal."

"Hmm, then I truly wish you a good luck, such a pity that there is no official Quidditch tournament this year. I bet you would make a fine captain, and it would look even better as a reference," Sam responded sincerely, and surprisingly she meant every word. Pucey never made any fouls in the games, if her memory was anything to go by, and he was a senior and skilled player. Sam folded that hand since wasn't even worthy of being called a hand - a weight was more appropriate.

Adrian looked puzzled for a second before nodding. A Gryffindor wishing the very best to Slytherin was not very common. The next words shocked him even more.

"It is pity that I had never chance playing with you in the same Quidditch team, I suppose it would have been a good experience."

He stopped and went through the statement and stopped again when he reached the implied conclusion.

"Wait," he said as he folded, "are you saying that you could have been playing for Slytherin team? How could precisely be that done?"

"Well, it would be easy, if I hadn't convinced the sorting hat to sort me into Gryffindor, but I had met Draco before in Diagon Alley, and the notion that I would have to spend a whole seven years with him in the same house was not bearable. However, if I had known that the house offered such an exquisite beauties like miss Greengrass here, I might have reconsidered back then, but even that might not have been enough - the annoyance factor of his would have probably negated such notion. Although I do wonder why he ended in Slytherin in the first place, he's so rash that he's more Gryffindor than anything."

Most of the group were hanging on every word, Daphne rolled her eyes slightly at Sam's slight pass at her and retorted with a look that said that she was barking on wrong tree.

"Potter stop trying to get to my pants." She grumbled.

Sam chuckled. "But they're such a nice pants." Daphne huffed and gave Sam a flat and unamused stare.

The card game continued and Sam managed to pluck Marietta and Goldstein clean, Davis lost most of his funds to Susan, and Greengrass left the table with an amount that was roughly little more than the entrance fee rather than face Sam or Susan, knowing that these two were over her league. So it came to an epic showdown between Sam and Sue.

Sam won in the end, but only because she had a years of experience of playing the game and one nefarious uncle, who had taught her a whole load of tricks.

Sue Bones was one hell of a player in the making, and in Sam's opinion with a little more experience she would soon beat her and could go pro. Vector gave her a nod that carried a certain amount of the respect for the game well played, Sam made a note that she should go look through the web pages of big casinos in London and Vegas to see from how many Vector was banned. Sam had the distinctive feeling that Vector exactly knew what she was doing during the game and all of her little tricks taught by her uncle

Another interesting thing that happened that Bones stopped her right when Sam was leaving. She seemed a bit nervous, but it seemed that it was not because of her loss.

"Miss Potter," she started, "I would like to say that you played well and thank you for the game." She swallowed a bit. "I also would like to apologise for the my own lack of good judgment for wearing the badge, even if it was only for few minutes, and my behaviour towards you left lots to be desired. I am ashamed of what I did. I know that my apology is bit late and it speaks only for me and not for the whole house, but I really wish to make amends. I know it will take the time, but I truly wish to make amends, and if there is anything you wish for me to do, I will do my best." She said all of this little bit hurriedly and blushed a bit as she caught her breath.

Sam measured her with a levelled gaze, the girl looked really apologetic.

"Hmm, you know you are first to apologise, but you understand my forgiveness won't come that easy. I like that. Your apology is a start, a good start and I appreciate it, thank you. We can work from that, but it is true that you don't know me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember exchanging more than ten to twenty words with you prior to this day. I say we rectify that work from there. So let's start clean. Hi, I'm Harriet Potter." She said offered her hand to the nervous Hufflepuff as she said the last.

Susan took it in a strong grip. Sam smiled. "Okay. Sue, see ya around."

The word that Harriet Potter was supposed to end up in Slytherin spread in the house of Snakes like a fire, dropping Draco's reputation even lower. Slytherin was always about making connections, and connecting to famous people was always good. Finding that it had been prevented by the stupidity by one who was in a high position only because of his father's influence and the fact that his godfather was head of the house. Even worse, his repeated performance was so bad that it couldn't even be considered as lacking. Draco's position as a prince of Slytherin was severely shaken.

Sam was happy with her progress, though she had been bit sad when her rifle was taken. She had returned it to her trunk, but hadn't put it in her special, very hard to detect compartment because she knew Dumbles would be searching for it in her trunk. Dumbles was absolutely convinced that it was a magical artefact, and Sam found it amusing that he was trying to figure out any enchantment when there were none. She decided to send him a bill for it later, let him choke on that.

The next evening found Sam in her private common room, together with Hermione and Luna, the Quidditch team wasn't there because the vixen trio and Twins took Ginny out and started to train her for reserve position as a chaser Sam was scheduled to Ginny for Seeker drills somewhere next week. Luckily for Sam she was not needed and Angelina had yet to find keeper, Ron was out of question, he was all mouth and no game, Ginny was better for more active roles, Sam had her common room relatively empty so she took the egg and opened it. The screech coming from it was deafening.

She thought about it as her ears rang and said aloud, "Pity we don't have tape recorder we could recorded it and play it at slower speed and play it quieter. It sounds really distorted." She said sourly, "Or better computer to record and analyse it."

But Hermione's eyes widened as her brain caught up,

Sam wasn't too far behind.

"What about putting it under some different medium, like water?" started Hermione and Sam followed, "It would slow and quieten the sound."

Sam nodded and put down a glass and enlarged it into size of bucket, Luna filled it with water, before with a mischievous glint in her eyes she dunk Sam with a stream of water.

Sam let a small shriek and retaliated, getting Hermione with her stream of water and small _aguamenti _battle erupted between the three. When they were all sufficiently soaked they called it draw, and Sam dunked the egg into the bucket where she opened it up. After a while Sam had the clue.

_"Come seek us where our voices sound,_

_We cannot sing above the ground,_

_And while you're searching, ponder this;_

_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

_An hour long you'll have to look,_

_And recover what we took,_

_But past an hour — the prospect's black,_

_Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."_

They analysed it, and Luna's knowledge of magical creatures became useful. They concluded that the task would happen in Black lake and the contestant would have to locate something that they treasured most - -something which would be taken and placed there. Sam had a bad feeling that it wouldn't be something, but someone.

The next morning Sam was feeling really down from the revelation, so she asked Dobby to spike Snape's morning tea with her mix of LSD and THC to cheer herself up. The results were interesting and entertaining. Some of it she even witnessed.

In the morning potions he arrived wearing a pink robe and was jovial, awarding points to everyone while calling them pretties. Sam was highly amused. The twins, who had the next lesson, reported that during the whole class he was sitting behind his desk and finding it wondrous that he had two feet, then he started to slightly panick that he had misplaced his hands and now he had the wrong hands because he had only eight fingers and two toes on his hands instead of ten fingers, which turned into discussion, if his toes were fingers.

During lunch the rumour was that he was crawling through the dungeons naked, pretending that he was a snake and proclaiming that, "It was fucking dark down there." That was before he declared his love to Mrs. Norris. He was finally detained by the faculty and spent the rest of the day in the infirmary.

The twins were interviewed as the prime suspects, but the investigation of who had drugged Snape was beached because they even couldn't figure with what he had been drugged with. Sam decided to make something to make it up with them.

The rest of the week went quietly, and Sam's mood improved as the week ended and weekend began with it. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so Sam carefully made her way to the Shrieking Shack, carefully trying to avoid any people who would try to follow her.

And contrary to her expectations, it was empty. She was pacing there for fifteen minutes before a black grim finally showed up.

The mutt was staring at her and she scowled at him when she said, "You're late, you said ten sharp. And if you say that wizard is never late or never early I will bring an rolled up newspaper."

He transformed and was still staring at her. "Merlin, you changed pup," he finally declared. At her raised eyebrow and the fact she grabbed an rolled up _Times_ he hastily added, "In a good way."

"You, still look like a crap." Sam informed him succinctly and grinned before giving him a hug.

He sputtered a bit before her returned the hug.

"So dogfather of mine, how are you?" asked Sam.

"It's good to be out, actually. The old house is driving me bonkers. Remus tried to help, but he left for Europe recently and got a job there. I have to ask, where are your glasses?"

Sam nodded and briefly explained how contact lenses worked. These days she rarely put on glasses. They sat at the creaky chairs and made a small talk with Sam telling him about life at Hogwarts and her choosing into the tournament before Sirius asked about the first task.

Sam nodded, having expected the question. "To that I have to back up a bit. During Summer I stumbled on this Russian in London, he's muggle and is a muggle weapon reseller."

"Reseller?"

"He sells weapons that are not exactly legal on free market or stolen ones."

"So I sneaked out and bought a large calibre rifle from him. Here at Hogwarts, I found a secluded classroom and trained with the rifle so I was able to shoot the dragon. That reminds me, Dumbledore didn't believe that it was non magical and took it from me, I have to send him a bill."

"Wow pup, you didn't do small do you? But how did you sneak out?"

Sam briefly explained how she freed Dobby and then after brief hesitation she asked, "Siri, this man could get you a fake ID and with a little makeup, you could walk at least in muggle world as a free man. Or, if you are not so attached to your current face, we could find you a plastic surgeon to get you a new face. That way, you would probably not be bothered at all in muggle and maybe even wizarding world." Sirius seemed to ponder this, He looked extremely confused when Sam had explained how plastic surgery worked.

He needed time, freely admitting that he knew very little about muggle world. Lily had tried to teach him, but it had been too little and he admitted that he would probably stand out too much. What's more, when dealing with a shady business that might cause suspicions that would be hard to explain. Sam had to admit that her plan didn't count on that. She would have to ponder this a bit more and perhaps contact Boris to see if he had any suggestions.

Their talk then shifted to the time Harriet's parents and Sirius were at Hogwarts. After few hours of talking and a great lunch supplied by Dobby, they said their goodbyes.

Sam returned to the castle pondering what will next days would bring only to get nasty shock the following Tuesday at the end of her transfiguration lesson when McGonagall announced that a Yule ball was going to be held. And, just as the bell announced the end of the lesson, McGonagall stopped her with, "Miss Potter, a word please."

"Yes ma'am?" Sam asked apprehensively, having a bad feeling about this.

"As a champion, you are required to attend the ball with a date for the opening dance," she said succinctly and Sam froze, for a second.

Somehow managing not to stutter, she said, "Me? Yule ball? I'm not representing anyone. I'm not a champion."

"Your attendance is mandatory, I'm afraid, whether you are a willing champion or not," said professor McGonagall. It brought her a little joy after the debacle after choosing when she seemed to lose all trust in the eyes of the youngest champion who, against all odds, was faring better and taking things in stride. She had clearly been scheming and trying to come on the top, but right now? The champion was stunned and there was a brief look of pure panic on her face. McGonagall tried to soften this by saying it was just for the opening dance and dinner, but didn't seem to help.

Sam walked out of the classroom dazed. Her head was spinning.

Date no problem, but she was required to dance!

Dance.

"_Me? Dancing?" _ran through her head.

She stood still on the corridor and summed her whole thoughts and feelings into one word.

"Fuck."


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**Again sorry for long wait. As I said last time, life was hard in the last few months taking its toll not only on my psyche but also on my writing. But hopefully another chapter will be here soon, as I am currently finishing chapter 12. Hopefully you will find this chapter funny, as it was pain to write. This chapter is dedicated to Daniela who attended ball with me few years back and...well served as an inspiration for one of Sam's past experiences, hopefully she will forgive me one day. Also dedicated to all of my dance partners who had the misfortune to dance with me.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

**Chapter Ten**

Sam went on her mental meep moment and stumbled out of the Transfiguration classroom more than less on autopilot. There was a very good reason for her panic.

Sam was a woman of many talents, but dancing was not one of them. Sam vividly remembered her first dancing lessons in high school. The dance instructor was a gentle, small man who looked like penguin because he probably even slept in his tuxedo. He called her anti-talent for her total lack of any ability to dance. She later tried to attend a dancing lesson for beginners while at University and she was practically thrown out after the dance instructors proclaimed her to be a walking disaster with two left feet.

The last ball she attended, her date ended up with a pair of sore feet, a pair of Jimmy Choos crumpled beyond saving, and only shred of her dignity left once Sam stepped on back of her dress, tearing a large strip from most of its back and giving all the guests a nice view of her date's thong underwear.

Suffice to say, that relationship ended with that date.

Sam was so deep in her private world that she didn't notice the five Slytherins who had stepped in her way in an empty corridor. With Draco Malfoy in the lead, they included Bole, Derrick, Crabbe, and Goyle, with the latter two armed with beaters bats.

"Hey Scarhead…" started Draco

She was so focused on her worries about dancing that she simply walked on, not even noticing them, when Crabble took a swing at her. She then reacted automatically and would later swear that she had a no recollection of what had happened.

First she ducked, letting Crabbe spin and hit Bole. She grabbed Derrick's arm, did a spin, and threw him over her shoulder right into a surprised Draco. She then kicked Goyle into the stones, her left elbow found Crabbe's face, and she completed her spin when her other elbow found Bole's face. Derrick caught her from behind, so she pushed backwards hard enough to ram him into the wall and her elbow found his solar plexus. She didn't stop with that because Crabbe got a fist to his face and Draco, who in the meantime had gotten up, caught a spin kick to his face. Sam finished the spin by sweeping the legs from under Goyle who crashed to the ground and Sam finished with a hard jab to Bole's guts. She spun and grabbed the woozy Derrick and again flipped him over her shoulder right into Goyle, then grabbed Draco, who had somehow managed to get into upright position, head butting him hard for a good measure.

This all happened in a span of twenty seconds tops.

Sam blinked and looked at the five downed Slytherins who were moaning in pain and she was quite sure that there were quite a few broken bones. She could see a piece of snapped wood sticking out from under Draco.

She looked around blinking and thought, "_Shit! I just trashed five people and I have no recollection of it doing it. Can this be called sleepwalking? Better not stick around here._" Sam quickly cast five obliviates, internally praying she got the spell right and would be able to erase the fools' memories. She trained by using the spell on dummies, but never on a live target. Well, truth to be told, if she erased more than she intended, she wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

She again looked around and, not seeing anyone else, she quickly walked away.

She walked to the Great Hall after a stop at the bathroom to wash her slightly bloodied and bruised knuckles and plopped next to Hermione, who looked at her inquisitively and asked, "What did McGonagall want?"

"Told me I have to have date on the Yule ball for the opening dance."

"Okay, so you have to find the date," said Hermione slowly in thought.

"The date is not the problem," Sam said. "The problem is that they want me to dance."

"Okay, so I presume I will have to teach you," said Hermione nonchalantly.

Sam briefly considered if she should warm her friend about her inability to dance in grisly details, but decided against it, simply mumbling, "Your funeral," as she started to load her plate with piece of fried fish.

"Hope you know good cushioning charms, and don't dwell on your shoes," she added in off-handed manner.

Hermione blinked and said, "That bad?"

"Even worse, I reckon," Sam responded after thinking for a second. "During the summer I went out for a bit of clubbing, and the nicest description of my dancing skills was, and I quote: Did you see that girl that dances like an electrocuted sack of potatoes? Or Did you see that girl who is like marionette caught in the wind?"

Well truth to be told this happened in her old life some twenty years ago when Sam last went into dance club, and that was indeed the mildest comments, although she was tad bit drunk back then. But the point of the story seemed to be still valid.

She watched as a student ran towards madam Pomfrey and then disappeared with Snape in tow.

"_Well, hope this works or I have no idea how I am going to talk my way out of this."_ she internally thought.

Her thoughts were interrupted, by a young man from Durmstrang coming to her, looking very nervous.

"Yes?" Sam looked at him.

He fidgeted and spoke in very bad English. "Miss, Pouter, vould you make me ummm…" He trailed off trying to find the words when Sam spoke.

Sam looked at him and promptly asked in Russian if he spoke Russian. He seemed surprised and relieved at the same time.

"Oh..ty gavaris pa rusky?" he asked trying to reassure himself.

"Da," she answered.

He then proceeded to ask her very theatrically to accompany him to the ball.

Sam disappointed him by saying No.

He nodded and turned on his heel and walked away.

Hermione turned to Sam and dryly said, "Ri I can say I see why you don't think you will have trouble with getting a date for ball. But you surprise me, I didn't know you speak Russian."

"Yeah, you never asked."

"Okay, true, how many languages do you speak?"

"English obviously, a little German, passable French, and my Russian is also passable I think."

"Impressive," Hermione said.

Sam nodded and finished her meal in relative silence. What Sam didn't say was that she spoke her parents' native Czech fluently and as a someone who grew up in Chicago she understood Polish. She also cursed in ten other languages, including Korean and Hebrew.

The rest of the day went by and Sam was surprised that no one came screeching on her. As it turned out by dinner the story was that some group of students had beaten up half of the slytherin Quidditch team, as both Derrick Bole and Draco were on it and Goyle and Crabbe were future beaters.

Some people loudly wondered which of Draco's wands had been broken exactly, and who was the likely perpetrator of the act. Sam was lucky that her memory charm was not noticed and the memory loss was attributed to overall blunt trauma.

The theories varied from crazy, like a troll had once again found way to Hogwarts, to more probable, that some of the quidditch players from Durmstrang took offence that Draco called himself seeker and seemed to voice their displeasure, and some claimed that of the Hogwarts teams did the deed to even the score for the many fouls the Slytherin team had committed in recent years.

The evening was finished to amusement of the rest of Sam's friends and to Hermione's chagrin with a dance lesson.

Hermione was soon regretting her offer as Sam was kneeling before her, massaging her sore feet with an apologetic look on her face.

"You weren't kidding about not having an ounce of talent for dancing," said Hermione in a pain filled voice.

Sam nodded. "In my defence I did warn you."

Hermione sighed. "You did, fair enough."

Angelina came little later and asked, "Hermione, did you use cushioning charms?"

"Yeah, fat load of good it did to me," Hermione grumbled.

"Did I say I'm sorry?" Asked Sam.

"Yeah, multiple times."

"Sorry."

Hermione wave her hand. "S'okay. I brought this on myself."

"Then we…" One twin started.

"can see only one alternative…" the second followed

"for our dashing black-haired…"

"heroine to be made into…"

a decent dancer," they finished together.

"And what pray tell would that be?" asked Sam. She never bothered to address the twins by their name without use of the map, so she just referred to them as to Twin A or Twin 1.

To the great consternation of the twins, there was only one person in the group who could say immediately who was who, and that was Luna.

"Charmed dancing boots," said twins together.

"That could work," agreed Angelina while Alicia nodded.

"Something like that exists?" asked Sam.

"Yes," supplied Katie, "my mum had ones for dad, and he is nearly bad as you."

"How do they work?" asked Hermione curiously.

"It is special enchanted, rune-covered inner sole you place in your shoes. Then on the dancing floor it is triggered by the music and leads your steps."

Sam nodded, it was her only hope.

"By the way, have you heard about Ron?" asked Ginny.

"No, and I'm not sure I care," replied Sam.

"Oh, you should he is planning on asking out the French veela champion," replied Ginny smugly.

Sam blinked. "Oh crud, I have to see this, I can never say no to a good firework show."

"You do realize that he will probably ask you then."

"He definitely can try and he can try to live on the moon, too," Sam replied flatly.

"Just one little request: maim him all you like, just don't kill him, he is still our brother," Ginny said as she gestured to twins and herself. "And mum would yell at us because he got killed. I don't like being yelled at. Those clowns," she waved her hand towards the twins, "are used to it, but I am not"

"Oi, we are not clowns, we are misunderstood geniuses," protested the twins in unison, but they were waved off by Ginny.

"Okay, no promises, but I will try."

The next two days went by quietly. Sam in mean time was thinking about the dress she should have. She was thinking about mail ordering a tuxedo with tails in female cut fitted to her. She was not sure if she wanted bowtie or tie, but she had a few catalogues in her dorm.

During the lunch, Ron indeed tried to ambush Fleur just outside the Great Hall.

His attempt looked like he jumped from behind pillar screaming, "YOU, BALL, ME," and fled.

Poor Fleur was so stupefied by the appearance that she didn't react at first and simply stared into the empty space, which was mere seconds before occupied by Ron, before she managed to phrase her thoughts.

"Waz was zat?"

Sam, who saw the whole altercation, felt the need to clarify, and to surprise of the French contingent did so in fluent French. "Just a local simpleton, don't mind him."

They looked at her and she nodded to them as she left for the Great Hall.

The next day Ron was boasting that he had asked the Veela chic out, but she had yet to answer him.

Sam was just eating her breakfast, when the red haired mo-Ron, came to her.

"Hey Hars, you heard I asked a Veela out, I reckon she will say yes, but I sups that I ought to give ya chance to go with me," he said.

Sam didn't even bothered to look up. "Not even if you were last man on earth."

"Oh come on Hars, otherwise you make a fool of yerself by going alone."

"Alone?" Sam scoffed. She already had about ten proposals; granted all were males, but one cute girl from the French contingent had been was taking long looks at Sam.

He opened his mouth again, "_Fine. In the spirit of an international cooperation_..." Sam thought to herself, as she stood up and walked around him so she could approach the redheaded French girl. After giving her a formal bow, Sam asked her if she would do her the great privilege allowing her to escort her to the ball.

Michelle Lebeau was surprised when the famous Girl Who Lived asked her out - and in French, too! She was not one of the prettiest girls and she was definitely not extremely popular due to her stuttering or the fact that she liked girls too.

So it came as flash of lightning from the clear sky when the younger girl came over, radiating confidence, and asked her out in the open. Nevertheless puckering her courage, she nodded her acceptance, blushing like a tomato.

The champion smiled widely at her. "Great," she continued in French. "As you know, I am Harriet Potter, nothing more nothing less. Friends call me Ri." She smiled and offered her hand.

"Michelle Lebeau," Michelle introduced herself softly.

"Beautiful name, for a fair maiden," Sam said, before she added, "It is nice to meet you, Michelle, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have a class which starts in ten minutes I will send you note by my owl and we can meet later." Sam then gave her quick kiss on her hand and sauntered away, leaving a blushing Michelle and a great number of people with jaws hanging open.

She returned to her seat and dug into her meal with a gusto.

Ron, who was still standing on his place, nearly screamed. "Wot was that supposed to mean."

"I asked a girl out and now I have date. Be gone, Ronald, or I will make you gone."

He folded his arms under his chest and his face was as red as his hair. It seemed like everybody was waiting on his explosion and to see how Sam will react.

"Oh for crying out loud, why do I even bother," muttered Sam just before she stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a sharp whistle. Jerry-Lee appeared mere seconds later.

Sam simply snapped her fingers and pointed at Ron. Jerry-Lee bristled and gave a menacing growl as he advanced on Ron again.

Ronald may have learned something from previous experiences because he quickly broke into run like a bat out of hell. They did few laps around Gryffindor table before they ran out of the Great Hall. Jerry was dutifully chasing Ron until the pursuit ended when Ron somehow managed to climb up on a statue on the first floor. Jerry-Lee sat at the base with an expression that said he was willing to wait. Unfortunately for Ronald, the statue which he took for a refuge because it was too high for Jerry to reach him was in a seldom used corridor. Ron was freezing up there, due to the lack of pants he now sported thanks to that blasted ghost dog that was guarding him. Ron wasn't particularly bothered by the fact he was missing afternoon classes, but he was hungry and cried for help multiple times - he'd only gotten two lunch helpings which weren't nearly enough, and it was time for a snack, which he would normally have made form his sixth helping. Jerry, though, was sitting patiently at the base of the statute, watching him like a eagle and radiating malicious smugness.

Ron felt like crying, thinking about how dinner would end in five minutes. Jerry was under his statue, growling menacingly every time he tried to move and snapping his jaws every time he tried to jump up and reach him. Worst of all, the twins had refused to tell him where the kitchens were and no elf wanted to tell him to the point that they avoided him.

The moment dinner ended, Jerry left self-satisfied with a job well done.

Later the day, Sam met with Michelle and they talked. Michelle was bit disappointed when Sam said she was not planning on dating her right now, but she understood the reason why. Sam had a feeling that Michelle was very shy, but a nice girl and it would take some time to break her out of her shell.

Sam therefore decided to coach the older girl on how to be more assertive and how to feel more self-confidence. As they talked, Sam learned the crux of this rested in Michelle's older brother.

As it turned out, Michelle felt a bit overshadowed by her older brother who was making his way as a potion maker, to the joy of her parents who were international wizarding lawyers. While not as good as her brother, Michelle had considerable skills in potion making herself. So in the end Sam talked Michelle into tutoring the group in potion making, explaining the basics rules, why certain things reacted in particular ways, why counter clockwise stirring had different effects from clockwise, and other things that Snape never bothered to explain, but were vital for understanding for making good potions.

Michelle was also warned about Sam's dancing "skills."

The whole group was awarded with amusing scene that evening. When Jerry-Lee arrived, everyone could see Ronald's pants in his jaws. Since he was not present at any of the day's classes, they correctly surmised that Jerry had chased him somewhere remote and then kept him there until after dinner. Sam took one look at Jerry, called him a "good boy", and then she called Dobby to bring her a fresh toothbrush, a glass of water and toothpaste. Once she got everything, she ordered Jerry to sit, and to amusement of all started to brush his teeth while muttering things under her breath.

"Gods only know where these things were, what possessed you to think it is good idea to grab and carry them with your teeth? Hold still you idiot, totally your fault and be glad we don't have to go to the vet to get you tetanus and rabies shots, you sure should get them from it. I said hold still and open wide!"

Hermione couldn't help herself and asked, "You do realize he is ghostly and so shouldn't be able to catch anything, right?"

Sam answered without stopping or paying any attention to the dog's whining. "Don't you dare turn intangible! You were saying... Oh yeah? So? I have no idea when that mo-Ron bathed last time or when he had his clothes washed. This lug sleeps around my legs I won't take any unnecessary risks."

"I think I heard Dean was shocked that Ron showered yesterday," piped up Ginny helpfully.

"My point exactly. See, all done," Sam said contently as she finished brushing Jerry's teeth. It had only taken five minutes, but it was one of the more unpleasant tasks she'd had to perform for quite some time.

Jerry started to sputter and spit as he tried to get the taste of toothpaste out of his mouth and then glared at Hedwig who was sitting on the windowsill, making sounds that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

Next evening brought another surprise.

Sam had planned on spending a quiet evening with a book on how to stay under water, when to Sam's surprise Hermione came rushing to Sam's bed in their dorm bouncing in excitement. She explained that The Victor Krum asked her to the ball, but that they intended to keep it a secret to surprise everyone. Nevertheless, she had to tell her best friend.

There was one thing that was bothering Sam quite a bit. At first, Sam was a bit bothered by the negative reactions to her asking another girl to the ball. A number of students regarded it as nothing more than an extreme way to refuse Ron's advances, and most expected that she would ask someone else later. That was the majority opinion, but quite few students acted disgusted with her choice - most of whom were purebloods. Some of the girls even acted as if she had a plague or something similar.

But Sam was made of stern stuff and didn't let the opinions of others get her down. What's more, Sam was never one to leave things without retaliation. The final straw that started her campaign of revenge occurred the next day at dinner when Draco came sauntering to the Gryffindor table, clearly preparing to cause a scene. Sam eyed him with mild interest, surprised that the Slytherin fool had been able to hold in his bluster for more than 48 hours after she asked Michelle out. He must have been practically bursting.

"Oi, scarhead, finally showing your colours and no class. I always knew you were dirty blooded, but you're not even a really girl - you're just a half-blooded dirty dyke," he said with a laugh, and his cohorts dutifully laughed after him.

Sam looked at him one of her eyebrows rising as an idea formed in her head and she said in her best airhead, bimbo persona's voice that she could muster.

"_Moi_, Drakey? But I thought you would be happy with me coming out. I thought that, if I came out of the closet so openly, then you could do so as well without the peer pressure. Now you're acting like you're jealous that I asked out a girl who is way prettier than Pansy and she agreed." Michelle blushed at the praise.

"What?" Draco exclaimed, unsure how to react. And Sam plowed on with an evil grin inside of her mind while maintaining the most innocently confused face on the outside.

"I mean, you want to tell me you're _not_ gay?"

"What!?" Draco now shrieked. "What are babbling about I AM NOT GAY!"

"Really?" continued Sam innocently. "I mean, you obviously spend more time doing your hair than most girls and I can plainly see that you are wearing more makeup than me. You even have two strapping lads always following you, like they are your special **butt**dies." She blinked at him confusedly. Crabbe and Goyle tried to subtly shuffle away from behind Draco. Unfortunately subtlety wasn't in their vocabulary and their movement was painfully obvious. Murmurs started to be heard across the great hall.

"I AM NOT A POOFTER!" screamed Draco on top of his lungs. Sam just clucked her tongue disapprovingly and shook her head.

"Oh, Drakey, I am sorry for you. It seems that you are not ready to leave the closet. That's alright, you'll be ready one day, of that I am sure. Eventually you will find a courage to come out. It just proves why you are not Gryffindor material, I suppose."

Draco did an impressive impersonation of a red-faced fish as he looked around helplessly, but no one came to his rescue. Instead, everybody seemed to just stare and started to whisper. The murmurs grew in volume and his protests just fueled it all. With a last, desperate "I AM NOT GAY!" he fled the great hall, not that it helped his reputation of being straight.

Sam looked at the two shaved gorillas, who seemed rather indecisive, before she shooed at them. "Go, you two. Your lover needs you. Go calm him down." They fled, too, albeit in an even more undignified manner than Draco had. The murmurs and rumours flooded the school about Draco being outed by his arch nemesis. It seemed that boys started to avoid the Slytherin trio and quite few refused to stand with their back turned to them.

Hogwarts rumour mill seemed to forget that Sam asked girl out as it was now completely engrossed in the new topic of the question about Draco's sexuality.

Sam had a beef with a quite a lot of people for their behaviour towards her, and as they said, revenge is a dish best served cold. Hogwarts seemed to be a victim of a new prankster whose pranks the teachers were unable to pin on the Weasley twins because it was completely outside their usual style.

One time the furniture in the Badgers' common room was rearranged - the places remained the same but everything was stuck on the ceiling upside down. It was a pure coincidence that most of the Badgers had called Sam names and were wearing those pins.

A few days later after that, all furniture in the Raven's nest was found to have been turned five degrees clockwise and shifted two inches to the left. This caused rampant paranoia in the Raven's nest as things seemed to be same but at the same time they weren't.

Then there were a bunch of delayed sticking charms on the floor in front of the Snakes' common room where someone had released harmless snakes that looked like poisonous species.

Ron regularly woke up with a hand in water bowl or low desk over his bed.

This was how life continued and they nearly didn't notice how October turned into November then into December. One early December morning Sam was reading her morning _Times_ when a story caught her attention. The headline screamed:

_**The Terrifying Case of the Dursley Family**_

Under it was picture of all three Dursleys, handcuffed and being led into a courtroom. Dudley's face was blurred due to his age.

"_One of the most terrifying case I've ever had," says DCI Jackson Japp, lead investigator of this case. The case of the Dursleys goes today to the courts for sentencing and police are releasing their first statements about it. Members of Dursley family were on the first look an average, happy family living in nice suburban neighbourhood in Surrey, but under the facade of normalcy lurked a dark secret. Today they will learn their respective sentences for the crimes they were earlier found guilty of. Their sentencing was being postponed as both prosecution and defence were waiting for results of a psychiatric examination of the Dursleys family. But it is believed that the adult Dursleys will spend next decades in prison at minimum._

_DCI Jackson Japp stated that this case began when a plain package was delivered to Scotland Yard. In the package was an account book belonging to one Vernon Dursley where he had meticulously recorded every penny spent as well as all of his checks and bills. Do not be fooled by the innocence of this as it also included had a extensive records of the fraud he committed against the Grunnings Company where he was slowly siphoning off large amounts money, In addition, Mr Dursley was paying off several individuals, most prominently several of his old schoolmates from Smeltings Academy and Superintendent Philip Smith of the local constabulary, who is facing his own trial. Several bank officials were also involved, and they worked to cover up the fraud. Further investigation revealed the nature of the reason behind the bribes: Superintendent Smith was covering up for his old schoolmates from being discovered as a culprit in a hit and run two years ago where young girl was killed, as well as numerous cases of Petunia Dursley shoplifting in local shops. These investigations led police officers to the doorstep of the Dursley family only to discover other even more terrifying part of this case: the fate of young Harriet Potter._

Under it Sam stared at her own "current" sketched face.

_The maternal niece of Petunia Dursley, Harriet Potter's parents died in tragic event thirteen years ago and she was entrusted to her aunt's care. The records show of no medical treatment ever given to the child except for one visit to optometrists. From school records it would seem as if the girl were instigator of many conflicts, but further investigation revealed that the Headmaster of the Primary school of the little Whinging was another old schoolmate of Vernon Dursley._

_After interrogation of several ex- teachers, all of whom were fired in disgrace from the school because they tried to go against Headmaster's wishes, and several of Harriet's former schoolmates, it became clear that the girl wasn't criminally inclined hooligan, as she was portrayed, but rather a victim of systematic abuse from her relatives. This was demonstrated quite vividly by the bloodstains discovered in a cupboard under stairs in the house where the family resided. It is unclear what was happening with the girl after she left the primary school - she allegedly attended Saint Brutus' Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Children, but this institution doesn't even exist. Young Harriet was only seen a few times during last three summers when she was supposed to be away on holidays._

_This summer it became clear that the young girl somehow gained upper hand over her tormentors. According to investigators, evidence they gathered points to young Harriet having acquired a gun. They cite a bullet hole in the kitchen wall and traces of a gunpowder in her room and say that it was probably a weapon manufactured during World War II. It is unclear what happened to Harriet because there were no traces of young Harriet or said weapon in the house. The investigators are afraid that her relatives killed her for her attempt of standing up to them. The investigators are speculating that young Harriet found an old weapon and with it tried to win her freedom, but as it happens with old weapons it jammed and young Harriet was then killed by relatives._

_According to one source who witnessed the interrogation of the Dursleys, they all stated that young Harriet was a freak like her parents and they had every right to beat the freakishness out of her. When investigators asked where Harriet is now, they got a disturbing answer from the family. They said that she went into the fire. Investigators are afraid that after having killed young Harriet, the Dursleys burned her body. There were no sign of human remains among the ashes in the house of horrors, but police think it unlikely that Harriet Potter is still alive. There were no photos of the young Harriet, so police had to have a sketch created, if you have seen this girl recently please contact following number…._

Sam was stunned. Not in her wildest dreams had she ever expected that her little tip to the Yard would reap this result. The Dursley family was no more! The article went on that the son of the Dursleys was found in possession of smaller quantities of steroids and later he was connected to juvenile gang that was responsible of numerous cases of vandalism as well as the mugging of a 90-year-old man who didn't survive the encounter. He was sent to the specialised centre for disturbed children where he was being kept in protective custody.

Sam decided to keep a mum about this news because Dumbledore seemed oblivious to it and she didn't want him to overhear. She had a status of an adult in wizarding world and in the muggle world, thanks to Boris, she had a good set of papers that proclaimed her that she was emancipated 16-year-old Samantha Mecner.

"_The ball is coming close_." Sam thought later as she walked down the corridor for lunch. Luckily for her, she had already tested the charmed dancing soles and with them she was semi decent dancer who wouldn't completely embarrass herself.

Hogwarts had somehow absorbed that she asked a girl out and as a consequence, quite few girls started looking at her apprehensively, as if they expected that she would jump on them. Boys were looking at her, too, and she could see how they were imagining her with another girl, bloody perverts. Some teachers were looking disapprovingly at her, almost as if she'd broken a rule and they wished they could punish her.

She only cared about the opinions of few people, though, and all of them took it in stride and were supportive. Well, the twins had to be slapped by their respective girlfriends to stop imagining them with another girl, and others like Ginny and Susan were bit weirded by the concept, but they took it fine in the end.

When Sam saw Neville Longbottom, she realized that the boy hadn't spoken with her ever since that lesson on the unforgivables. Instead, he was trying to stick with the guys from his dorm and avoiding her, but on the other hand he wasn't wearing the badge or belittling her otherwise. Now there was the fact he asked Luna to the ball yesterday. _"In a penny for a pound._" Sam thought.

"Neville a word, please." The voice of Harriet Potter surprised Neville as he was just about to go for the great hall for the lunch when a strong hand caught his shoulder and dragged him to a corner. He didn't like the look Harriet gave him at all, she was mighty dangerous when she wanted even without using single piece of magic. She was always nice and easy-going to most of the people, but when pissed or placed somewhere dangerous... he shuddered what almost happened to Draco on that duel or how that poor Horntail ended. And now she was looking at him coldly and calculatingly.

He began to sweat… a lot.

"Neville, do you know why we are here?" she slowly drawled.

"N-N-no." he stuttered.

"A little birdie told me," she said in a tone of that faux cheerfulness that really scared him, "that you asked Luna to be your date to the Yule ball." She let that hang for him to confirm or deny.

Despite seeing his life before his eyes, Neville answered, "Y-Y-yes that is t-true."

"_Hmm interesting so he has at least some spine, good_," Sam thought and continued.

"Now, Luna is like a little sister I never had, so hear this. If she returns from that ball harmed in any way, shape, or form…" she husked into Neville's ear, "Then I will find you, wherever you hide I will find you and then… then your death won't be quick or painless. On the contrary, it will involve a lot of blunt tools... and let's face it; an open casket funeral really won't be likely for you. That's assuming, of course, that your remains are by some strange coincidence, actually found. I hope we have an understanding, now do we?"

"I understand," he forced out without a stutter, and Sam was actually impressed.

"Now do you? Hmm we will see… Good." Neville noticed that suddenly the cold bitch from ninth circle of hell disappeared and was replaced by the cheerful easy-going Harriet he knew.

"Cool, then enjoy the ball Nev," she said with a smile. As she started to leave, she turned to him and added, "Oh and for god's sakes call me Ri will ya?" With that Sam turned on her heel and walked away.

Hermione joined her and asked, "What was that all about? Neville seemed bit pale."

Sam just shrugged. "Just found that he asked Luna to the ball"

"So you just threatened him with a horrible and slow death?"

"Ehh… More or less, I wanted to make sure that he knows what will happen, if Luna is harmed in any way, shape, or form, and vague disclaimers are no one's friend, you know."

"Did you threaten Victor too?"

"No…"

"You are horrible liar, you know that?"

No really Mia I didn't…" Sam weakly protested.

"Ri…" said Hermione with a mild glare. "Then pray to tell me why he suddenly developed habit of looking over his shoulder as if awaiting a hellhound jumping out of nowhere and dragging him into hell whenever he speaks with me."

"Dunno. I have nothing to do with that."

"RI!"

"Fine might have a little talk with him, and there might have been some mentions of a blunt hatchet and a shallow grave. Happy?"

"Yes," Hermione huffed as she shook her head.

"Do you have clothes for the ball yet?"

"Yep, they arrived yesterday."

"Great. I take it you will wear your horntail boots."

"Of course."

They chatted idly as they sat at the table and started loading their plates. Ron was still a nuisance as it turned no one wanted to go with him.

Last week, he tried to ambush Fleur again with yelled "QUESTION, YOU, BALL, ME, GO, ANSWER".

This time he stuck around long enough for her to answer, which was a fireball hurled at his face.

When he again tried to ask Sam, Hedwig, who had just flew for her morning bacon, showed that she had an uncanny aim with her droppings as she got it Ron right in his mouth. So now he was pestering Hermione who, apart from Sam, had told no one of her date.

Just as they were finished with their lunch and were leaving the great hall, a nervous looking Susan Bones made her way towards them.

As it turned out Susan had a tip for her because she heard Cedric talking about taking an egg to the prefects' bathroom. While not exactly useful as Sam had solved the egg already, she did leave with an interesting piece of information that there was a plant that allowed people to breathe underwater.

And before they could notice it was Christmas time and the ball was here.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven Dumbledore's Rotten Holidays

**AN: this was betead by Philosophize check his stories they are awesome.**

**I wasn't planning on releasing this chapter till I was at least halfway done with chapter 13, but since it is my birthday today I decided to give you all a little present. Cheers ND.**

**Anyhow kudos to those who will recognise the odd reference to one pretty famous english band.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine I am just playing in others people sandboxes.**

Albus Dumbledore slowly sipped his evening nightcap as he reflected on the events of the last few weeks, events which made him feel all his years. He felt the pleasant burning of the alcohol down in his throat and a few seconds later he let out small belch of fire. After a brief moment of consideration, he poured himself another.

Sipping this second drink more slowly, his thoughts turned to reflect on the year as a whole. The tournament had become a small bureaucratic nightmare because minister shovelled nearly all responsibility for the tournament at the dynamic duo of Barty Crouch and Ludo Bagman, both of whom knew next to nothing about the job (mainly Bagman), had no desire to participate in organization of an event in which he had to work with foreigners (also Bagman, but mainly Couch), or were so surly that they annoyed those foreigners they did work with (Crouch).

This all lead inevitably to a rare moment of cooperation between the duo, when they transferred their responsibilities elsewhere - and it naturally ended up on Dumbledore's desk. So of course he had to do most of the work to manage a tournament he hadn't really wanted in the first place.

Then his thoughts inevitably turned to the youngest champion, or unwilling participant as she put it. It was infuriating how she refused to cooperate.

She kept insisting that she didn't enter, which he knew to be true, but in a grand scheme of things he needed to see how she fared under pressure and hate from most of her peers over the course the year. That had been put to an end when she unexpectedly swore a magical oath.

Certainly if this was the usual circumstances he could have suppressed it, but with all the foreign officials milling around it had proven too difficult to keep that development quiet. He did manage to keep it from the press, at least, and it would have long been forgotten by now if the girl hadn't somehow miraculously botched that patronus that was still running around, reminding everyone of it.

He still couldn't for life figure out how did she'd managed that or how on earth that blasted dog could turn corporeal and back to incorporeal whenever he wanted. And then she kills a dragon with what she claimed was a muggle rifle! After many tries he'd eventually managed to disassemble it, but didn't find any traces of magic or runes on it. It was maddening. And now she had to pull another stunt.

She had to ask a girl out to the ball!

A girl and of a foreign nationality to boot.

It was a disaster, and he was having a very hard time keeping the news from spilling out of Hogwarts. To make things worse, the girl she asked out was pureblood - if she were a muggleborn he could at least encouraged rumours that the muggleborn had used her lack of proper upbringing to ensnare young impressionable Potter heiress. So he was still doing damage control.

He lamented that he couldn't use his usual methods to fix these problems because there were too many people watching for any dramatic personality shifts to go unnoticed. Otherwise, Potter would be right now dosed up to her gills with love potions, just like Molly wanted. He sighed again, wondering how he would fulfil his need to affiliate Potter with a light pureblood family. The Weasleys were ideal, and his contract would help - despite the fact that Molly had dictated the terms, he had been careful enough to insert enough loopholes that he could change it to fit his purposes.

At least Christmas started in a week, and with a bit luck, the whole debacle with Potter and the French tart would soon blow over.

The phoenix in the room would have let mournful song about his bonded one's hypocrisy, but after so many years in Dumbledore's company he just couldn't muster energy to give a damn anymore.

Dumbledore finished his drink and poured a third, as it seemed he would have to rethink his plans for Potter. Probably completely change the summer plans and have her confined in Burrow until September, but that would destroy the blood wards!

After a few minutes of pondering he came to provisional solution: let Potter to go to Privet Drive, but after one day move her to the Burrow. The blood wards could be kept alive if he stopped in one night to perform a ritual using as much of her magical power as he could to power it. One added bonus was that it would leave her weak for a few weeks, which meant that she'd be more susceptible to mind magic and mind altering potions. With this settled he patted himself on his back for his brilliance and poured a fourth drink, gulping it down. He felt a little bad, taking over a child's life like this, but it was necessary for the good of many and of the world. Knowing that he served the greater good calmed his conscience and with that he went to bed.

He never noticed that the doodad he had connected with the blood wards, monitoring them for any problems, had collapsed nearly month ago and was lying motionless on his shelf.

Sam woke up in excited anticipation of what the day would bring. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, and Sam had lots of plans for the day. Lots of people were planning to go there to buy dresses for the Yule Ball, so she expected there to be a lot of commotion and overcrowding in the village that she could use as a distraction.

She had already informed Hermione and Luna that she needed to go discreetly to London and asked for their help. Essentially they would misdirect anybody who asked where she was, saying that she'd just left to the different shop and thereby sending them on wild goose chase. Hermione suggested enlisting aid from rest of their group of friends, but only telling them that she wished to have a little peace for her Christmas shopping, and they all readily agreed.

So once in the village, she quietly ducked out of her group of friends and donned her invisibility cloak as she snuck into the Three Broomsticks. Despite it being late morning, the place was bursting with customers. After one carefully aimed tripping jinx, followed by many cries in a spirit "my beer!" a bar brawl followed during which nobody noticed the floo being activated.

Tom the bartender at the Leaky Cauldron was having a slow morning and he was gently nodding off behind the bar when he was suddenly roused from his half asleep state. He looked around and couldn't see anything out of place, but he would swear that he heard the floo going off, followed by a soft thud and something that sounded like softly said "_Kurva_".

After a few seconds he heard the entrance to alley going off as he concluded that a customer just walked through the Leaky and didn't need anything, with that concluded he went back to his nodding.

Sam briskly walked through the alley before stopping at the unassuming house hosting a number of practises neatly listed on a large brass plate next to the door. Sam looked over the brass plates until she reached the last, which said:

"Theodore Tonks, Barrister &amp; Solicitor, JuMDr. (Judicus Magicus Doctor) LL.M. (Legal Law Master)."

Sam shook her head - she would probably never completely understand the wizarding word as the plate spoke the text she was reading from it. With a last look at the plates she entered the building and shrugged off her cloak, stuffing it into her pocket, before knocking on the lawyer's door.

Theodore Tonks, often known as Ted, lifted his head from his paperwork to see a young witch entering his office. The day was slow, and he didn't have many clients lately despite his high education because his blood status was a severe impediment to his business. He didn't expect anybody today, but then she sauntered in like she owned the world. He thought that her face seemed familiar and was sure that he'd seen it somewhere, but where?

"Greetings. Doctor Tonks, I presume?" she asked.

He nodded warily. "Yes that's me, to whom I have the honour?" he asked.

She smiled before she asked, "May I sit?"

"Certainly." Ted agreed.

She sat and she folded her fingers into a pyramid peering at him calculatingly over them for a few seconds, before she spoke. "Doctor Tonks, before I divulge anything, I need to know what level of confidentiality you provide for any information I divulge here, including my name."

He looked at her with an intrigued expression, before he answered. "As per rules of this practice I am not of liberty to divulge any information about a client without direct permission from the client or a court order. If it is required I will take a vow of secrecy., he replied, and she again gave him another calculating look, before she nodded.

"That should be acceptable for the moment. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Miss Harriet Potter. I assume you've heard of me."

Ted had to call on his years of practice not to gape and he restrained the urge not to look on the young woman's forehead.

He focussed on her eyes and absentmindedly he noticed the small circles around her whites. "_Contact lenses_" he assumed as he composed himself.

"Miss Potter it is a surprise, but shouldn't you be at Hogwarts?"

She smirked at his question and instead of giving him an answer she reached into her robes she pulled out a book with few colourful sticky notes bookmarking certain pages.

"Mr. Tonks, could you tell me what you conclude from the bookmarked sections," she said. He reached into his table and pulled his reading glasses as he took the offered book. The cover said "Updated rules of the Triwizard Tournament." He flipped the book open to the marked pages and went through it. He looked at her, before he slowly spoke.

"If I am understating this correctly, the fact that you have been chosen and have completed the first task means that you are now legally considered adult in the wizarding world. And if I am not mistaken, since you are the last living member of your family, you have become the head of the house Potter."

She nodded as she pulled a seal ring signifying her headship. "Very well, Doctor Tonks that is indeed correct, I wish to hire you for your services, under the condition that you will keep any hint of my direct involvement in this quiet. From your titles I can guess you are more than adequately familiar with muggle law, correct?

"Yes, I do have a shoe firmly in both words, as the saying goes," Ted answered and the grin on the young woman's face on the other side of table gained shark like appearance.

"Then do tell me, what do you know about copyright laws in the wizarding world?"

Ted leaned back in his chair, "_this should be interesting_," he thought as he began speaking.

An hour later Sam walked out of the office under the cloak with a smile on her lips, and if people could see her they would know that it wasn't a nice smile.

Sam briskly walked through the Leaky into London, making stops in a few shops and by Boris for a little something for the upcoming second task as well as a visit to Paranoid Pete.

Paranoid Pete (Not a real name, after so many changes of identity, even he didn't knew his real name.), as his nickname suggested, was extremely paranoid and also best man to go to if you needed a new identity or passport. It was only thanks to Boris' word that he even agreed to meet her for the first time back in the summer. From him she obtained one passport sans photograph for Sirius, then she returned via Dobby to Hogsmeade in time to catch the last carriage to the castle. All in all it was a productive day.

It didn't take long for the week to fly by and then Christmas Eve was upon them.

Sam spent most of the day with her friends and in the late evening she spent it alone with Jerry's head in her lap, silently reminiscing about her childhood and her parents, both of whom had passed away over ten years before her car accident.

Sam was thankful for the mail ordering services of number of shops, without which her Christmas shopping would have been much harder. She had bought a very nice book on muggle painting methods for Luna with a quality painting set for these methods, for Hermione she had a luxury German inkwell pen, as well as one of the first editions of the Lord of the Rings.

As a little Christmas present she sent an envelope to the headmaster in which was a receipt - which she had needed a few hours to create with an R.o.R typing machine - for one slightly used M95 sniper rifle, ammunition, and accessories, totalling for $7,000 She include a handwritten note explaining that it equalled £3890, or 77 Galleons, 13 Sickles, 18 Knuts give or take a knut and, if he refused to return her rifle, she wanted him to pay for it.

She even went so far as to have the amount written into one of her bank statements which intercepted by Dumbledore so he would believe she had taken the money from her vault.

That Christmas morning Sam grinned because Luna's face was buried in the new encyclopaedia and Hermione's in The Fellowship, gently touching each page as if it was a newborn babe.

Sam received a leather Jacaru Swagman hat from Hermione, which was now sitting on her head, and a painting of herself with Hermione Luna, Jerry-Lee and Hedwig from Luna. In the morning Hedwig swept into the room giving Sam beautiful tail eagle owl quill, which explained why Malfoy's majestic eagle owl looked so ruffled lately.

And Jerry-Lee proudly presented her with a fifteen pairs of socks - it was odd as it was only one from the pair and all were garishly coloured. Sam had a sinking feeling to whom they all belonged, and she knew had to get herself rid of them or else it would be a mess of epic proportions, but still the thought behind it warmed her heart and she got out the largest tin of the best and most luxurious owl and dog treats for them. Triple bacon for Hedwig and Jalapenos treats for Jerry. It still baffled Sam that Jerry apparently still could eat in his state. And his tooth for hot and spicy things remained too.

She found out this, one november day when she asked Dobby to prepare pot of beef and Jalapenos Chili for lunch. Other elves were interested in the meal and ended preparing few pots of them. And when Sam just finished putting her serving of Chili into bowl, Jerry appeared out of nowhere and in front of everyone jumped on the table and ate everything from the pot next to Sam in a span of a few seconds, then he let out a horrendous belch, before slowly walking away. The rest of the day he spent just lying around, heaving and occasionally letting loud and smelly belches. He had one of the most ridiculously contented and blissful expression.

**Meanwhile, in London.**

An old Russian man woke up and padded to the kitchen to put the kettle for the tea, when he noticed a large Christmas stocking over his desk. He was sure he'd put the alarm on, and all entrances and windows were locked tight, but still the foreign object got in. On it was note which he carefully opened with a pair of tweezers - he had a lot of enemies from his long life Postoyannaya bditel'nost' was his life motto. Inside of it was simple:

"_Merry Christmas, from Little Tasha_." In a chicken-scrawled Cyrillic.

His eyebrow rose as he carefully pulled on his gloves and opened the stocking. Inside of it he found one large bottle of the best Russian Honey Vodka, one large tin of caviar, a jar of sour cream, a small paper box with still-warm bliny's inside, and a carefully wrapped package.

He carefully unwrapped it and inside was pair of gloves made from some kind of leather which he didn't recognize. They were some kind of cured scaled hide, he could tell that much, and very pleasant on the touch. He examined at the tin of caviar, "_Beluga from Russia_," he gave satisfied nod as he reached for plate, knife and shot glass. "_Well this looks like this will be really nice little Christmas_," Boris thought as he started to prepare bliny's with sour cream and caviar as an unexpected treat for Christmas breakfast.

**Meanwhile, in a certain castle in certain headmasters bedchamber.**

Albus Dumbledore was raging because somebody had broken into his private bedchamber and, despite of all his security measures, had stole one from each of his best garish socks. It was an outrage that he would now be forced to wear those dull white socks.

XxX

Soon it was lunch and time to change into presentable clothing. During her meal Sam kept avoiding looking at the head table where the headmaster was in foul mood. According to the rumor mill, somebody broke into his private chambers and stole something. Outside the gentle snow was covering the whole of Hogwarts with white blanket, and with a sigh she lifted herself to get changed. When she reached the Gryff common room she was again accosted by mo-Ron, who had seemed to have been waiting there for her.

"Come on," he whinged in a voice that he seemed to think sounded charming, but which in reality sounded like he had something up his nose. "Hars, come off it. Going ta the ball with a bird is so stupid, you still hafe tha chance ta make it right by going with a man! I can…hmpf" He didn't get to say more as Sam's wand was in her hand and fired three spells: one bound Ron with ropes, the second created rope gag and the third stuck him to the wall.

Sam tucked the wand into her sleeve and said, "No, I already have a date." Sam muttered a few insults as she walked away with her nose up in the air.

The dorm room was in a pure chaos as girls were preparing for each other respective dates, Hermione was, thanks to the Sleekeazy potion managing her hair, and after briefly after watching the chaos Sam joined in as she started to prepare.

When Sam emerged few hours later she was in black tux with long tails, a white shirt, a white vest, and a loose black bow tie. She had briefly considered including a top hat with the ensemble, but decided to forgo the headwear.

The ball went on as expected. She and her date endured a few disapproving glares, which she studiously ignored, the two danced, and Sam even let few others dance with her. On the whole, she was content with her evening. Weasley, who until the last second was pestering her and Hermione, was sorely disappointed that they went with their dates and not with him. Hermione looked radiant in her dress, Luna was obviously happy with her partner, and everything went well.

Michelle, as Sam found out loved dancing, even with an inept dance partner like Sam, and surprised Sam by continuing to talk her into more dances throughout the night

The Wyrd Sisters played several waltzes in addition to their own music, and Sam was content dancing to both types. When not dancing, they all sat together at the champions' table where Sam used the opportunity of having all champions present to bring up the second task and subtly asking if any of them had solved their eggs yet, but they looked askance at what they perceived as her trying to pump them for information.

Sam decided to play it differently, using brutal honesty for a change. "Look, I can speculate that you all did get the clue from the egg and my question is, have you considered what or rather **who** they might take?" She asked as she sipped her butterbeer, idly wishing that it was glass of Martini or real beer, nice cold Pilsner now that would be nice she wished internally. Her question was followed by sharp intakes of breaths and surprised expressions on the face of the other champions.

"Are you sure wiz zat?" asked Fleur, with Victor and Cedric seeming to agree.

"I don't know how about you, but I always value people more than things. Things can be replaced, but friends cannot. And face it, since when have the judges cared for the safety of the students?"

Sam decided to strike the iron while she had their attention and continued, "I mean, look at me, they could have let me out of the tournament in matter of hour after the choosing, but instead they are forcing me to face trials that are deadly to people three year older and way more experienced than me."

"I hate to break it to you, Ms Potter, but you had the fastest time in the first task and you did kill the Drakon." Victor pointed out.

"But I didn't do it with any magical means. In fact, all I used were strictly muggle items to achieve the goal. Though, I admit getting them here was slightly complicated, " Sam said with a shrug.

"So you are saying you killed the dragon with muggle rifle, that was it, just how it was possible?" Cedric asked to clarify.

Sam shrugged. "I used what muggle armies call a light fifty. That rifle was chambered for an fifty calibre round - the dimension of the ammunition is roughly half an inch thick. That's where they get the name fifty, and it's big enough to punch hole through nearly an inch of steel plate from 1000 yards away. No joke, this is written in the rifle's manual."

The champions looked stunned at her.

"And muggles 'ave zese zings commonly available?" Fleur asked.

"Not in corner stores where anyone can buy them, but every muggle army has not only weapons like them, but even more devastating weapons as well. Weapons that can devastate whole cities in a seconds," Hermione added her two cents.

Several heads at the table turned at her she blushed a bit and explained. "My father used to be in army special forces, back before he became dentist, and he's talked about such things." At the not completely comprehending looks she tried to clarify for the wizard-raised. "He was like muggle hit wizard before he became muggle teeth healer."

That brought few shudders, killer became torturer and that was Hermione's father. Most of the Champions were afraid to ask what Hermione's mother did. Soon the champions returned to the topic of the second task as they started to discuss what had Sam presented to them, not liking the implication, but not finding anything to disprove it.

xXx

Ron Weasley was sitting alone in the corner fuming because he was being ignored "Who do those the bitches think they are?" He muttered to himself as he picked at the ugliest dress robes imaginable, robes which he thought had once been ornamental orange curtains in its previous life, and started to eat his fifth helping of dinner.

"Potter thinks she can just ignore me and send that demonic dog on me, ME and nobody sees that... and she takes some French hussy to the ball instead of me... and the backup bookworm then has the gall... no what is the word she use deme…no, temerity! That's right, she has the temerity to betray Hogwarts with the Durmstrang Champion, then suddenly she looks like girl and Potter has new robes... that's not fair, what've I got? And that Veela chic throws fireballs at me, I bet it's Potter fault that she treats me like mud."

Ron's piggy eyes fogged as his few brains cells worked overtime to come up with an idea, completely oblivious to a stream of drool coming from the corner of his mouth.

After Michelle had finally traded her in for a more competent dancer Sam, found herself standing near the podium with the band. During the last dance she'd caught a glimpse of Ron in orange curtains, sitting at a table alone frozen like a Windows Vista, probably trying to eat and think at the same time before being overloaded. When she looked again, he was still sitting there frozen and Sam's mind quickly drew a picture of blue screen of death over his eyes, chuckling at the mental picture.

Her attention returned to the band because for a good while now she'd had the niggling feeling she'd seen them somewhere else but couldn't think of what the setting had been, though her money was on the music club in Soho

Soon it was clear that the ball was winding down, with most couples having already left to either go to bed or explore the gardens. Once the bad finished with what was obviously their last song, the lead vocalist stepped forward to address the remaining few dancers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, you have been a lovely audience. It was awesome to be here again, and we hope you enjoyed this event as much as we did. Fear not, though, we're not leaving just yet, we're staying for a bit for an after-ball jam, and anyone who wants to join or get an autograph is welcome to come."

Sam was just about to go back to the champions' table, when a voice from behind her. "Ahh, miss Potter am I right?"

Sam looked and saw the lead vocalist Connor Crumble approaching her.

"Yes?"

"As Tommy said, we are going to jam here, I hear from my little cousin you play bit of guitar. Wanna join?"

Sam thought about the offer and decided that it would be a really nice ending for the evening.

"Sure why not," she answered with a smile as she hopped on the podium and Tommy handed an acoustic guitar. Sam sat and did two resolute strikes against the strings. Her mind whirled around what to play before her bluesy heart decided, and with that she started to play "Sweet home Chicago."

Halfway into the song the drummer and keys joined her. Once she finished the first words she heard were, "Girl, you can surely play." They laughed at that as they picked another song. A few minutes later Sam managed to get two whole two syllables from Dobby when he showed up and handed her guitar and hat.

At the questioning looks she shrugged. "That was Dobby, more or less my house elf, but I'm thinking of renaming him Radar, 'cause he knows what I want before I can say it." They all complimented her on the guitar, asking if it was from Stan's shop in Diagon Alley. It wasn't long before they delved into another bluesy jam session.

Three songs later, Jerry Lee joined them for what Tommy jokingly called Monsieur Nobs solo.

xXx

Ron glared at the podium where Sam and the others were playing. Not many people were paying attention to the music coming from it because the amplification charms had been cancelled , not that he knew this. Ron was glaring because he saw Potter sitting with the musicians, playing on that blasted piece of wood. "_Showing off again, like true fame monger, showing off... Ohh, I Have an house elf, why can't that little twerp come to my calls, huh? I was the one who led her to the Chamber. I did more important stuff... he should come to my call not hers_." He glared even more as he hear them laughing when they started to sing some song about bright side of life and more people from the crowd joined them. Ron finally decided that he'd had enough of this nonsense. He was The Man and he should act like that by putting his foot down. With that Ron resolutely marched over to the podium.

XxX

Sam was having her time of life. It had been far a too long since she'd had a good jam session with musicians that she just clicked with. They'd finished one of Sam's personal favourite songs and she'd just propped her guitar next to her before reaching for the open bottle of butterbeer on her side when she vaguely registered that someone was calling at her, but she was absorbed with the company of fellow musicians that she just ignored it. All of the sudden she was overcome with a feeling in her gut - a feeling that she knew very well and never dared to ignore because it had saved her ass in many situations. It was screaming at her to dodge, which was exactly what she did - and just in time, too, because less than a second later her guitar exploded.

Gasps from people around who joined them for a bit sing-along and then deafening silence followed. Sam was staring at the mangled remnants of her beautiful guitar.

Then an cruel laugh broke the spell and Sam's gaze slowly turned to the source of the laugh, only to see Ronald still with his hand raised his wand in his fingers.

In that moment her vision turned to a red-misted tunnel solely focused on Ronald. Her heartbeat became deafening thunder against her ears, and her magic was a tightly coiled spring just begging to be released.

People around could see as Harriet Potter turned slowly, almost mechanically, to face Ronald Weasley, her face turning into a stone mask with only her eyes betraying the inferno raging inside, so bright that they were almost glowing.

Her moved in an invisible wind, and some would swear they saw small wisp of energy started to form around her palms. Then she moved, pulled her wand faster than anyone could blink, and fired a spell.

To be honest Sam didn't know how she managed to keep the spell to _Expelliarmus_, probably because she wanted to kill him with her bare hands, not that anyone heard her to actually say the incarnation, but the big fast jet of red light was a solid hint what she cast.

It hit Ron square into his chest, sending him flying good ten feet before he slammed into a wall and slid down to the floor. His wand flew into Sam's hand and she casually snapped it.

Sam started to move almost mechanically while Luna and Hermione exchanged looks, quickly coming the conclusion that if they didn't do something their best friend/older sibling would probably go and beat Ron to death.

They both hastily ran to the marching Ri and simultaneously grabbed her by one hand each, murmuring calming words to their raging friend before managing to drag the fuming redhead out of the Great Hall.

As Hermione counted, only half of the things Ri was saying were coherent and only fraction of it was in English, but she could still tell they were all addressed to Ron, promising him a long and painful death as well as damning him to an nth degree. It took them a good hour and help from both Hedwig and Jerry to calm her down to be a rational being again rather than a homicidal ruffian.

Unfortunately, a certain bug witnessed the whole altercation

xXx

Albus Dumbledore massaged his head in frustration. The Yule ball just could have ended even worser than he could even hope. First Harriet Potter did indeed come to the ball with a girl. She was even dressed in a tux, reminding him of an muggle actress he'd seen on posters in 30's, then she and all champions ended in a hushed conversation, giving him and the other judges suspicious glares for most of the dinner. All of that was minor, though, compared to the incident that happened later.

Ronald went and fired a spell at Harriet, in public in front of everyone, when she joined the band for an after-ball jam. And the moron just had to hit the Potters instrument. To make the matters even worse, it had all been witnessed by none other than Rita Skeeter, who then had the whole last incident smeared across the first page of the morning edition. Calling it that the youngest lovelorn Weasley son had tried to kill the object of his unreciprocated affections. Curiously, the headmaster couldn't seem to remember seeing her there.

Now the DMLE was breathing down his neck as the instrument proved to be damaged beyond repair and its price was originally nearly 100 Galleons, but taking into consideration who owned it and the fact that all members of the Wyrd Sister stated that its owner played it quite skilfully, the price was estimated to be over 150 Galleons.

That was money, which Weasleys didn't have, and it would ruin them getting it. He'd just had a meeting with the young Potter and an Senior auror John Dawlish who had been sent to the castle by the Minister Fudge.

In the end, Miss Potter had proposed a compromise, disagreeing with the opinion of Dawlish that heavy fine that would destroy Weasleys. It wasn't completely Forgive and Forget like Albus had pushed for, but some would call it reasonable. Miss Potter demanded that Ron pay the whole value of the guitar within five years after finishing Hogwarts, and that he be forbidden from using any money he gained by any other means than his own work. What's more, he was to be put under a restraining order not to approach Harriet Potter until she said otherwise or in class, as Albus resolutely refused to resort him. If Ron breached any of those conditions, he could be sentenced to Azkaban for up to four months and have his wand snapped.

When this was finished and Albus tried to voice his disappointment to Harriet, saying that she should have forgiven Ronald, and also expressed his disappointment that she even didn't look Dumbledore in the eyes when she spoke with him, she just brusquely asked if he read the receipt and that she wanted her rifle back.

He refused to do so, claiming that it would not be returned because it is obviously artefact of dark nature which was within his rights to seize. He didn't miss her eye roll or huff as she left wordlessly his office. He might have won this small round around this "rifle," but on the whole he felt he'd been losing the ground under his feet regarding Harriet Potter. The summer couldn't come soon enough in his mind. He regretted letting her compete, but he needed to see what she was capable off.

And on top of that he had to listen to Molly's screeching about her boy being victimised.

Albus finished his nightcap and huffed "_What a rotten holidays._"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

_**AN: song by Loudon Wainwright III Unrequited To The Nth Degree. Check his other songs even if you don't like folk, the man has some very interesting and amusing lyrics.**_

_**As always, my heartfelt thanks to my Beta Philosophize, without him my stories would not be readable.**_

_**The guitar is inspired by ****Fender Vince Ray Outer Space T-Bucket Acoustic Guitar, which is absolutely most coolest guitar I have ever seen.**_

_**I should apologize for the long delay between updating but life happened, nuff said.**_

_**Again thank you, for reading and reviewing.**_

The fallout from the article was immediate with Sam being portrayed was the victim. It seemed that Skeeter got the idea that, if she wrote about Sam in a truthful manner, then the ghostly dog would cease his attempts at eating her in defence of his conjurer.

And so most of the public's anger was directed at Ron while the fact that Harriet Potter attended the ball with a girl was a small note on the end of the article, a fact which made Sam grateful since it got her a minimum of hate mail.

The most notable exception was the howler sent but Mrs Weasley, but she never listened to it because she destroyed it right after Errol dropped it.

Ginny and the Chaos Carrots apologised profusely for their youngest brother and mother, but Sam never held it against them and always told them that she didn't held it against them, but rather put blame squarely on the Ron and Molly.

The rest of the holidays were spent in peace and quiet with Ron luckily behaving and keeping his distance.

The reason for it wasn't, as some would think, the powerful non-verbal _Expelliarmus_, but the fact that his mother had come to yell at him for severely disrupting her plans. This cowed him sufficiently that he gave Sam a wide berth. It also helped that Albus told them that he currently couldn't overturn the punishment or the restraining order, and the earliest opportunity would be at the end of the spring, so until then Ron had to keep his head down.

The public helped him in his avoidance effort, as every fourth letter contained some kind of curse or was laced in potion, keeping him in the hospital wing for some time.

Sam used most of the time of the holidays holed up in R.o.R. preparing for a dive into the lake in the middle of winter. During her last visit to London she had purchased a winter neoprene diving suit and was now experimenting with various methods for breathing under water. The bubblehead charm was her backup plan, and her main plan was using Gillyweed which Sam was trying to get to use to using.

She had found one major disadvantage in her plan of using Gillyweed: her need for glasses. Using contact lenses was out of question, as they would fall out underwater. Wearing goggle over contacts, well that was just asking for trouble in Sam's opinion, and large goggles and glasses was not an option either as the large goggles would probably destroy her glasses. So when she was in London she had a special prescription swimming goggles ordered, and they would be mail delivered before the end of the January to her London mailbox.

The webbing between fingers on hands and feet was causing her another problem because neither gave her as much speed as pair of flippers and they severely reduced the dexterity of her hands, so handling any underwater firearm became difficult. This led her to the drastic solution of cutting the webbing between her thumbs and forefinger and forefinger and middle finger.

That in turn led her to learning first aid spell, _**Episkey**__,_ to mend the wounds after cutting the webbing. It hurt like hell, but Sam argued to herself that it was necessary and that she had plenty of painful wounds already. Luckily, when the Gillyweed effects ended and she reverted back, any traces of the self-inflicted wounds on her hands disappeared as well.

Underwater combat was one of things Sam had very little experience in and muggle tech was not making it much easy for her. There were grindylows, merpeople, giant squids and what not in the lake, making it quite dangerous. Boris said he could procure SPP-1 and some ammo for her, but in greater depths she would only have her magic to work with.

So she decided to increase training in combat spells which she could use underwater as well casting a strong _**Aguamenti**_ charm to boost her speed as a kind of underwater jet engine. Unfortunately, Sam found that she had loads troubles keeping hold of her wand while doing this, so she improvised as she constructed a leather harness that would firmly and securely fasten her wand to her arm. Near the end of the year she managed to get reply from Sirius telling her that he would meet her at her next Hogsmeade weekend in the end of the January.

Classes resumed shortly after the New Year, and Sam had to face that Snape brought a whole new level to his abuse towards her. During the first Potions class, she had to control her urges as she had a good mind to empty a magazine into Snape and kick him out of the window of the top floor of astronomy tower while saying, "yippie ki-yay motherfucker."

So tempting.

But nothing had prepared her for morning _Prophet_ on the first Tuesday of the new term. Sam was just reading in her _Times_ that US east coast and NYC area were getting caught in one of the worst snow blizzards in the century while streets were flooded by the new drug called Valkyr when the _Daily Prophet_ arrived and in it Rita had blown Hagrid's ancestry all over the front page. This explained why the gentle giant was missing and there was a replacement teacher, one who had even fewer body parts than Moody. She seemed like a decent teacher, but she somewhat lacked in enthusiasm. Maybe it was the extent of her injuries? Hagrid had this spark for animals, like that blonde Australian Sam once saw on TV who cuddled with dangerous animals, especially with crocodiles.

Sam noticed that when she approached the unicorn, the animal was visibly wary of her. Sam was not surprised - disappointed, yes, but hardly surprised. She was no innocent soul, and some of her deeds still weighed heavily on her conscience. It was one thing to kill man who killed hundreds and another to do so when he is unaware and unarmed at his own child's birthday party.

It was many girls' dream to pet a unicorn, and Sam was no different in that aspect, but she had to face the fact that she was too dirty for an animal that practically symbolised pure innocence and which refused to be touched by her.

Hagrid meanwhile had holed himself up in his hut, refusing to speak with anybody. It took several tries before he was even remotely approachable, but after intervention from Dumbledore he returned teaching and replacement professor Grubbly-Plank returned to her retirement to spend more time with her remaining limbs (Although Sam heard from Hagrid that most of Professor Grubbly-Plank's injuries came from working at a Nundu reserve in her youth and the fact that she survived to talk about it seemed to make her an certified badass).

As the month of January went on Sam was generally feeling a bit sadder without her guitar. According to Stan the music shop owner, it was irreparable.

On the morning of the last Saturday of the month, while Sam was going over what she'd be talking to Sirius about later in the day, Hedwig and two unknown owls arrived with a large package for Hermione. Hermione acted really secretive and oddly when she grabbed Luna and they both disappeared with the package.

They had been plotting something for some time now and Sam was naturally curious about what was in the package, but neither Hermione nor Luna were anywhere to be found. Since she was a bit pressed for time, she was forced to give up on her search for her two errant friends and headed to the Shrieking Shack.

There she had to wait nearly twenty minutes before the black dog arrived. She gave him an irritated look as he changed, but Sirius simply shrugged nonchalantly. "There was an auror snooping around Hogsmeade. I had shake em off my trail before I came here."

Something in his tone of his voice tipped Sam off. "Let me guess, an auror caught you peeking under her robes, didn't she?"

Sirius reddened a little. "Uhmm. I…" Sirius began stuttering, confirming Sam's suspicion.

"Oh my goodness, she totally did!" Sam face-palmed and quelled the urge to slam her head against the wall.

"Well, s-she was cute…" Sirius tried to say but Sam gave him a look that cut him off.

"Well she was cute, he says. Are you Se… Of course you are." Sam gave him glare that dared him to make that pun before shaking her head in exasperation.

"Siri, please, you have a kiss on a sight order on your arse. When you are cleared, do as you will, hell, if you teach me how to become animagus I might even join you, but not one second sooner. You are one of the few family members I have left, and I don't want to lose you. Use your effing head, it's not just for putting hats on, okay?" She delivered an each point with a stab to his chest with her finger and finished with a fierce hug.

Sirius grimaced a bit with each stab and the hug.

He really didn't use his head. He gently patted her on her head and when she released him they sat down.

"So, Siri," Sam began, "have you thought what I told you about getting a new face?"

"I'm not sure, I mean it would be great walking around without being bothered, but it would be permanent and that process you described…" He trailed off with a bit of a shudder.

Sam understood and nodded. "I hear you Siri, it's totally up to you now, among other things. You are the one who is holed in the family house being driven nuts. So I was thinking that I let you in on one of my plans for the summer, maybe then you'd have something to look forward."

"Oh, secret plans, pup?" Sirius asked his eyebrow rising.

"Well, yes, during the summer I wanted to do bit of sightseeing and was thinking of taking you with me - you know on an old fashioned bonding road trip. Somewhere far away where they've never heard of Sirius Black," Sam said with a smile. In fact, she was planning to get eye surgery in a clinic in Los Angeles, and it would be great to take Sirius with her. Sam was relatively sure that it would do Sirius good, maybe even with a side trip to Vegas provide some healing for his damaged soul, and there were lots of skilled plastic surgeons in that region who didn't ask many questions so long as hard cash was offered. If Sirius decided to get a new face on the trip, that was just a nice bonus.

"What will Dumbledore say?" he asked, looking bit worried.

"Nothing, it is not like I have to explain to himself or that he has some say in my life."

He looked bit surprised by that, but Sam told him that she had a suspicion that Dumbledore was not exactly their friend now. He looked troubled by that and he seemed to be thinking about it.

They talked about life in the Hogwarts for a bit, and when Sirius asked about the ball, Sam was upfront about having gone with a girl because that's what she preferred (though she added that she didn't plan on dating Michelle any further).

He looked a bit shocked by the revelation, but didn't say anything. Then Sam looked at her wristwatch, noting that she needed to move on so she could manage to complete all of her plans for today. Getting up from the couch they were sitting on, she'd made it halfway to the bag she'd brought with her before seeing Sirius get up to follow.

She spun around and commanded in an authoritative voice, "Sit." He sat.

"Stay," she said with smirk.

She turned back and with a two strides reached her bag.

"No scratching yourself," she admonished as she picked her back and walked back to Sirius.

He scowled at her. "Not funny pup."

"Believe me, from my point of the view, it was," she said as she set her shop. "Now, for the trip I mentioned we will use muggle means. No worries, I have everything covered, I do have a good set of muggle passports for you." She pulled it and showed it to him.

He looked at it and frowned at the name. "Stan D. Still?" He looked in disbelief at her.

"What? Compared to the other names in wizarding world, that's is pretty plain." Sam defended. In truth, the name was her small joke on Siri.

"I mean, it is such a name that anybody who will see it will consider it as a real without any doubts. Who would pick such a stupid name for fake papers?" Sam argued. To be honest she had originally worse names for him like Bob Bimbou, Reed A. Lott, among others .

"All we need now is photograph for this. So stay still."

Sirius wanted to say something about the names, but the moment he opened his mouth Sam's hand darted out and stuffed cotton wad into his cheeks.

After an hour of torture, Sam stepped back and looked at her workmanship. Scowling back at her was a shorthaired, blonde, squared jawed, clean shaved man with tanned skin, a noticeable thin scar on right his cheek, and a distinctively crooked hook nose.

She gave a nod to herself as she appreciated her handiwork. Anyone would have hard time in recognising Sirius now.

She took a few photos with her Polaroid and waited for them to develop before cutting one out and gluing it into the passport, carefully putting the clear foil over it. Then she extinguished the sharp lumos she'd cast prior taking photos and rolled up the white sheet from behind Sirius

She handed one photo to Sirius as she worked with the one she chose for the passport. When she looked at Sirius, she found him examining himself in the mirror.

"I don't look like myself," Sirius said in a wonder. His voice changed because of the cotton in his mouth.

Sam was cleaning her tools and putting them into bag as she looked at him amusedly. "You do. Now we take everything down. This was a trial test, and the way I see it we passed with flying colours. I will keep this as a reference for the next time." She waved with a few photos she had in hand. They talked for a bit, eating sandwiches while Sirius went down memory lane.

Before they parted, Sam made an appeal to Sirius. "Siri, please don't do anything stupid okay, like you did today…I don't want to lose you. And if you do then be aware that I will personally force you to your animagus form and I will take you to the nearest vet to have you fixed. Are we clear?"

Sirius gulped a little he wouldn't admit it, but the way his goddaughter warned him with that flat, unwavering stare scared him as he had the sinking feeling that she would make good on her threats without batting an eye.

"Good. Take care, I will write you soon," she said as she hugged him.

Once back inside the castle walls, she returned to the common room. Hermione and Luna showed up later, but when Sam asked both refused to tell what they had been doing doing, where they had been, or what had been in the package. Sam ceased her questions as she saw that she wouldn't get anything out of them. All they said was that it was their secret project, so she let them to have them to have their secret.

Over the next few days Sam had to increase her training regime as she tried to quell her anxiety over the rapidly approaching second task. And she lacked alternative ways to release her frustrations. Sam idly wished that she had her car with her so she could take it for a spin on local roads.

In her old life she'd owned a real beauty which she called the orange blur. It was an orange Porsche 914/6 with dark blue spoilers and stripes. It was fast, agile and in many ways a unique little convertible.

Sam finished beating the training bag and with a frustrated growl she hit the showers before heading to the Great Hall for the dinner. Walking down the corridors, she idly thought that even today, right when they were finished with their classes, both Hermione and Luna had vanished again to work on their mysterious project.

When she reached the Great Hall made for the other Gryffindors and dropped in her customary seat near the end of the table. The hall wasn't particularly full and once again Hermione and Luna weren't there. With a shrug Sam threw together a light salad and dug in.

Sam didn't see it, but shortly after she was seated Hermione poked her head into the hall, grinned, and disappeared.

A few seconds later, she reappeared with Luna holding large box wrapped in paper. The duo sat across Sam, clearing the part of table in front of them and placed the box onto the cleared space.

"Hey Mia, little moon, what's up?" Sam greeted them.

"Hey, Ri." they greeted Sam. Both of them were having a small smiles on their faces as their eyes were full of anticipation. After a few seconds of silence Hermione began to talk. "You know Ri, ever since the blasted ball, you have been positively sulking and…" Sam opened her mouth to protest just to be cut of by Hermione.

"Don't deny it you were totally sulking."

Sam huffed and looked at Luna who was nodding vigorously.

"Brooding even.." Luna added.

"Okay, maybe a little." Sam conceded.

"So," Hermione continued. "Luna and I put our heads together and we made an ultimate anti-sulking device."

With that, they presented the box to her.

Sam looked at the box and the two faces full of anticipation before opening the box, at which point her jaw went slack as she stared at what was inside.

Sitting before her was a black Fender T-Bucket, its front painted with a downed dragon and Large snake with a sword rammed through its head. Next to the dragon stood a red-headed pin-up witch in a sleeveless, form fitting duster and cowboy hat. She was holding a Winchester 73 repeater leisurely over her shoulder and a white bird sat on its barrel. Next to the witch sat a white wolf and in its jaws was with a dead white weasel with a red mane spot on the top of its head. Above the painting it in an old comics two-toned font was the title, "**Tales of Wild West Lightning Witch**". Underneath was the subtitle, "**This ain't no twilight zone**."

Sam stared at it for a good minute, not touching it, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Hermione and Luna exchanged looks.

"Ri?"

"Wow," was the only sound Sam could make.

"It's yours, it won't come apart if you touch it," Hermione said with a smile.

"Wow," Sam repeated, apparently awe-stuck. Soon, though, she was gently running her fingers over the wood and strings.

"So, we take it you like it?"

"Like it? It is gorgeous! Just... how?" Sam asked with tears veiling in the corners of her eyes as she gently lifted the instrument out of the box and stroked the strings, finding that it needed a little fine-tuning as she started to fiddle with the tuning heads.

Hermione smiled. "After the ball, I wrote to mum and dad and asked about his old guitar which he hasn't played for many years. They checked and found that it was still playable, so they agreed to send it to me. Luna found out and proposed that we customize it for you with a painting. We designed what to paint on it, then had to figure out how to make it thin enough not to affect the sound quality much - I think we did a great job on that - and finally Luna painted it," Hermione explained while Luna beamed.

"I...I have…words fail me, thank you. I…" Sam hugged them both. She was really at a loss for how to thank the duo enough. Not many people had ever done something so thoughtful for her. With gentle smile, Sam strummed few chords while admiring the small details - even the British flag on the fingerboard just under the head.

Sam then threw the strap over her head and with a few practised moves began played for real as happy laugh bubbled gestured to the others as she began a speedy tune:

"**Oh when I die and it won't be long**

**Hey you're gonna be sorry that you treated me wrong…"**

Luna and Hermione joined Sam as she stood up and followed her as left the Gryffindor table with a slight spring in her step.

Hermione joined in with the second stanza.

As the trio walked the rest of her friends including Gryffindor quidditch team joined them for the laugh along part as they walked out from the great hall.

"**And you better not pout and no you better not cry**

**The grim reaper is a-comin' to town**

**And I just might die."**

Albus Dumbledore looked from his place to the corridor from which the last echoes of the song echoed. "_Well at least I know who to pick as her hostage and no one will protest._" He thought little bitterly.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

**AN: Again my heartfelt thanks to my Beta Philosophize, without his my works wouldn't be half way readable or entertaining.****Now I am sorry that this update took me so long but real life had been rather busy killing my muse. Anyhow next chapter is already finished and is being beta read so next update might be here sooner than later. By the way I am quite surprised that no one called me on the Max Payne reference in chapter 12.**

Sam was undeniably nervous. The second task was planned for the next day, and Sam had no illusions about safety of those who'd be involved. She had no faith that Dumbledore would keep anyone safe.

He'd shown in the last years that he was incapable or unwilling to keep anyone safe. She believed that the judges would pick someone rather than something for the task, And there were only two persons in the whole castle who were especially close to her heart: Hermione and Luna. Sam had always been a very loyal person to all of those she loved and given enough incentive, she would kill without hesitation for them.

Sam firmly believed in not taunting Murphy, so Jerry-Lee was guarding Luna from under her bed in Ravenclaw Tower while Hedwig sat inconspicuously on Sam's bed, closely watching Hermione's bed from her hiding place. Sam cast about a dozen tracking spells on both girls, but she was quite sure it wouldn't be enough. She briefly considered hiding them both somewhere, but she had only two options: the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets. The first she didn't want to lose as an asset, and the second was not very accessible with the collapsed ceiling in the access shaft. She made a mental note to check it on a later date.

But she was quite sure that if the judges really tried, she would be powerless in stopping them. She got slips from both Luna and Hermione parents forbidding their involvement, but Sam had suspicions that Hermione's slip would be ignored since Dumbledore could overrule Hermione's parent's decision - after all they were lowly muggles.

Sam's thoughts turned to the talk she'd had with Hermione and Luna few days ago. Sam had once again talked about the second task, asking if they would be willing to go into hiding even though realistically she knew that wouldn't work, and even going as far as to suggest that they try to convince both Hermione's parents and Luna's father to fake some kind of family emergency to get them out of the castle for a few days so they wouldn't be anywhere near during the the second task.

But that idea was shot down.

It became clear that while Sam had already corrupted Hermione's view on authority figures in small measures, Hermione was still convinced that there will be all kinds of precautions taken. It was international event after all, and she thought that Sam was getting bit paranoid because there were no mention of taking live hostages for any task from previous tournaments. She had no doubt that, if she were taken, she'd be all right.

Luna, after listening to Sam's desperate rant, serenely said that she had faith in her that she would keep her safe, should she be chosen as a hostage. Sam was heartened by the sentiment, but didn't find it calming in the slightest She worried that Luna idolised her so much that when she messed up - and she would mess up sooner or later - it would hurt Luna even more.

The one thing remained true was that while Sam currently had Jerry-Lee with her, she was still feeling very alone here. In her old life Sam was more or less alone for quite few years, even when her parents were still alive. She had a largish, extended family with a number of cousins once removed, but she wasn't very much liked due to many factors like her sexual orientation, her hush-hush job, the military nature of said job, her parents left for America rather than stay in their birth country, and so on. After her parents' deaths, she was informed that they didn't like her, and it would be best if she never showed up again.

Her last years were even lonelier - finding your girlfriend of four years in arms of a man hurt a lot, but having that girlfriend turn most of Sam's friends against her after their messy break up had hurt even more.

So when there was an opportunity to start again, Sam took it. Unfortunately, she hadn't seen all of the consequence when she'd chosen to brave this new world.

That was one of the reasons why she clung to Hermione and Luna. Luna's innocence was soothing to her aching soul and brought a bright smile to her life, while Hermione was a selfless, intelligent, loyal girl who brought back Sam's ability to believe in others. Maybe these were part the memories of the original Harriet, but Sam had a feeling that Hermione was her rock for her sanity.

With these gloomy thoughts, Sam had to force herself to sleep, and when the morning came she was woken by mournful looking Hedwig, who with a gentle shoves of a wing alerted her that Hermione was gone. When Sam looked at her avian friend, she could tell that the owl looked groggy, as if she were recovering from a deep sleep. If she had to guess, she would say that there had been some kind of spell used on the whole room to keep anybody from interfering. Her noiseless opening and closing beak also pointed to the use of a silencing charm.

Sam grabbed the Marauder's Map and quickly zoomed into Ravenclaw Tower, finding Luna safely tucked in her bed. Sam quickly scanned the map, but she found no traces of Hermione anywhere in the castle. Her tracking charms on Hermione had been dispelled, too. She idly noted that B. Crouch was pacing in front of Moody in his quarters.

_Probably something to do with the tournament,_ Sam thought before discarding it as unimportant.

With a weary sigh, Sam rolled from her bed and headed to the showers. It was still early morning, and most of the dorm occupants were asleep. Sam grumbled quietly under her breath as she returned and looked around, opening her trunk and pulling out her gear.

Once she had it spread over her bed, she gave it cursory look to check she had everything before stripping naked and slipping into the undersuit and then wriggling into the wetsuit.

She was feeling that she was flying in blind into a hostage situation, since she only knew the approximate location of mermish village. The feeling she had could be only described as if she was driving a car in the middle of the night without headlights on highway hundreds miles long, trying to reach a place of hope while wearing sunglasses and having only half pack of cigarettes to keep her going.

She looked up and said solemnly to Hedwig, "I have a bad feeling about this day."

Hedwig hooted in agreement as Sam started to wriggle herself into the neoprene wetsuit. She then used the gear harnesses to clip on sealed pouches with gear, a large knife to her thigh, and a wand into the holster on her arm. She checked her custom handmade harness on her palm and it didn't restrict her movement if she strapped her wand into it. Once finished, she grabbed her fins and threw them over her shoulder before carefully checking all of the gear in a mokeskin bag, including making sure the pistol was loaded.

Most of the room's occupants were awake by now, and some of the girls were openly staring at Sam's attire. She ignored them as she fastened the swimming goggles to her head, leaving the lenses on her forehead for now, and patted Jerry who'd come in and given a single bark that more or less said, "_Luna is okay_."

"Yeah, I know, buddy, at least one less thing to worry about," Sam muttered as she pinched the bridge of her nose lifting her normal glasses little.

With another grumble Sam grabbed threw a robe over herself and slipped ON pair of sandals as she walked from her dorm into the common room.

She briefly stopped and looked at the window in the Gryffindor common room. It seemed that Neville had forgotten the pot with his latest herbology project there. It was some kind of a magical tree hybrid.

The plant-like stick figure might even have had some kind of sentience, for all Sam knew, as it had eyes and it reacted to Sam's stare, waving merrily at her. Hermione said the other day that it reminded her of small offspring of Ent from _The Lord of the Rings_. If it could be planted in small pot, that is.

Sam shook her head at the boy's forgetfulness, but she had to admit that he was brilliant with plants. Or perhaps he was a good old mad scientist in the making?

She wasn't sure, but at least it wasn't talking. What vocab could tree a have? Probably **I** and **AM** Followed by its name, (if it had a name, as Neville still hadn't named it), exclusively in that order.

Still, it was one of the funkiest things she had ever seen, but even that didn't raise her spirits much. She gave it a wave, but it was more like a dismissive wave of her hand than actually waving back, and the tree thing gave something that looked like whoop. Sam, not paying attention to generally anyone, went through the portrait and headed to the Great Hall.

She ignored the strange looks she was receiving as she chugged down her coffee and dug into a large BLT, fried eggs, and cheese sandwich that appeared in front of her. She'd asked Dobby to make sure she had a good, hearty breakfast today. The little fella was running his socks ragged because she'd also "loaned" him to Sirius to help out in cleaning up his place.

If she understood it right, the Black family elf was more nuisance than help in cleaning.

She felt as someone slipped next to her. "Morning, Little Moon," Sam greeted and passed orange marmalade to Luna.

The blonde girl gave a worried glance. "Are you okay?" Luna tentatively asked.

"No, but I will be once Hermione is safe again," Sam replied honestly

"It will be okay, I believe that you will not let anything to happen to Mia," Luna replied.

"Thanks, Little Moon," Sam said, trying to sound grateful, biting back what she really wanted to say: "_Wish I had so much confidence in myself,_" while in the back of her mind her imagination played more and more darker scenarios

They sat in companionable silence, though Sam was giving off the vibe that she should be approached only at one's own risk.

The only other notable event was that at the moment when Ron stepped into the great hall, a rake appeared in front of him and he stepped on it. The following crack and dull thud echoed through the hall as Ron fell on his behind, holding his flattened nose as it began to swell and bleed.

Sam smirked into her cup of coffee, her mind coming from the dark place it had been falling into. It had taken her ages to figure out the correct rune sequence to make the rakes appear in just the right place and time.

And of course she had another dozen stored in a totally inconspicuous broom closet that had been covered with dozens of Notice-Me-Not-Charms. Hagrid and Sprout were still wondering where all rakes had disappeared.

While everyone were looking and laughing at Ron's misfortune, Sam quickly and inconspicuously pulled her wand and fired a spell at the Slytherin table. The spell caused Crabbe's left shoelace to become tied to the table and his right shoelace to Goyle's leg.

Then she fired a second spell, switching Marietta's tea with a tea from a second cup she'd been "cultivating" for about month and half under her bed.

And finally, at the Hufflepuff table, she cancelled a spell that she'd placed on a large soup tureen, which Dobby had set at the table earlier. This cancelled a spell that was holding a bar of soap and potassium chloride over larger amount hydrogen peroxide inside of the tureen.

Satisfied with the small bouts of chaos she had just sewn, Sam tucked her wand away and finished her coffee. It had been a welcome distraction, setting up those pranks.

When Sam looked up from her cup again, she spied McGonagall walking towards to her. With a sigh Sam stood up waited for the professor to reach her and wordlessly turned on her heel to march in front, pointedly ignoring the McGonagall.

She was about to say something to Miss Potter, but the look of cold fury she received from her young charge stopped her. She was taken aback by the anger. She saw as the Lovegood girl quickly catch up with Miss Potter. It seemed that every time she made step forward in gaining her lost trust, she did something that sent her two steps backwards.

She wasn't surprised though.

The permission slip that she'd been handed by Miss Granger contained her parents' very exactly worded instructions forbidding Hermione's involvement in second task. She'd delivered it to Dumbledore who said that he would look into it.

Obviously he'd ignored it.

Their exit from the hall was accompanied with crash as part of the Slytherin table was overturned by the lumbering duo who went down with a great display of hand waving. Draco was knocked to the ground, holding his nose because one of the flying hands had caught him across his face.

This was followed by a screech and sounds of vomiting from Raven's table as Marietta took a drink from her cup. She immediately spit it right into her friend's face before she promptly relieved herself of her breakfast.

The hall hadn't even had have time to react to the new development when the tureen went critical and detonated in foamy explosion right into Anthony's face, covering good portion of table with thick yellow foam.

"I did protest against using hostages and even expressly pointed out Miss Granger's parents wishes against her participation." McGonagall said quietly.

Sam slowed her march. She knew she was behaving childishly and forced herself to become more rational.

With a tired sigh Sam pinched the bridge of her nose, lifting her glasses a little and rubbing there where the nose pads normally touched. "I know, thank you. I am sorry I'm behaving like brat. It's just…" Sam shrugged eloquently. "I can deal when it is just me, but there are others caught in and I didn't prevent it."

"I am sure that all hostages will be alright." McGonagall was surprised by the openness of the confession she'd just heard and tried to reassure the young woman, but even to her ears the platitude sounded hollow.

Sam shrugged again and mumbled quietly, "Can't say I share your optimism. And it doesn't stop me from worrying. The last years have proven that nothing is simple when I am around."

McGonagall took her turn in sighing. The young woman was right and to her great shame, she even participated in such events - the detention from iss Potter's first year came to her mind, and she wondered not for the first time what had possessed her to assign four first years to night detention in the Forbidden forest when something was hunting unicorns.

"That is unfortunately very true, miss Potter."

They trekked to the lake in silence and once they reached the pier McGonagall said her goodbyes, wishing Sam luck as she left her to her own devices. Sam started to play with her glasses case, flipping it up and down as the champions slowly joined her and the spectators started to fill in.

The dullness of the moment was only interrupted when Draco and Ron accidentally got too close to each other and started to insult each other, which quickly turned into a slap fight.

What neither realised that they were doing it right in front of a professor so McGonagall dragged them away by their ears, and they weren't seen for the rest of the task.

(Later they were found standing in and facing opposite corners of the Great Hall while wearing white hats. Many said that they were turning an amusing shade of red.)

Sam gave the arriving champions an unconcerned wave of her hand in greeting, as she quickly looked them over.

The boys were in Victorian-style swimwear under open robes, although Victor had foregone the top, leaving swooning fan girls in his trail. Fleur was in a conservative, silvery one-piece. Their faces were a different matter entirely. Victor's face was badly held mask, and Sam could plainly see he was nervous. She gave him a nod, which he returned, then he added to the silence. "It seems that you were rechts."

Fleur nodded to her as well, and Sam gave them both a sad, resigned look. "I wish I wasn't, believe me, I wish I wasn't." Fleur was white as a sheet, even blind one would plainly see the fear rolling from the girl. She was clearly at the verge of panic.

Sam briefly remembered a passage from a book she had read. It said that Veela magic was elemental in nature, fire and air. If the task was happening underwater, Fleur might be in serious trouble because her magic might be considerably weakened.

Cedric ignored her. He hadn't even spared her a glance during the ball after a brief exchange, the first words they'd exchanged since she'd given him her warning about the dragons. He was still maintaining his high and mighty attitude, refusing to talk with "cheaters" like Sam, despite owning her for the warning. His face told its story, though, as it held air of worry combined with his usual measure of confidence.

The judges came and announced the start of task. Sam briefly thought about the selection of hostages, Chang for Cedric, Vasiliy Krum, Victor's cousin, Hermione for Sam and Fleurs little sisters Gabriele. Sam bitterly thought that the foreigners' hostages held much more closer value to their champions.

With a shake of her head to get rid of such dark thoughts, Sam placed her normal glasses into the case and dropped that into her pouch before putting on the swimming ones.

She saw Luna giving her a bright smile and a wave with her fingers crossed. She was surrounded by the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which Sam dubbed them in the corner of her mind her very own true fan club, and she gave them a confident nod. She was surprised as she saw Susan Bones joining them instead of the large Hufflepuff contingent, and in the group and she also saw Michelle giving her a wave.

Her thoughts turned to Michelle and the letter the French witch had received from her parents shortly after she'd sent them a photo of her opening the Yule ball with Sam. They had surprisingly not protested the fact that Michelle attended the ball with a girl. In fact, they even congratulated Mish on being one of the pairs that opened the ball. Their main complaint was that Michelle hadn't pick some nice French girl, but rather had insisted on picking an **English** girl - and known English troublemaker at that.

Then another random thought assaulted Sam, "_I didn't see any screens or magical versions of them here. Omnioculars will be no help when the all action is happening under water, so most of the people came here to just stare at the calm lake water? Talk about viewer-friendly task_." She gave a snort to that.

When the rest of champions looked at her, she repeated her thought out loud and received weird looks from them.

The cannon went off, announcing the beginning of the task. She sorely disappointed the onlookers when she dropped her robe and let it pool around her feet, revealing her neoprene suit, as she kicked off her flip-flops. The other champions jumped into water from the pier while Sam sat at the edge and pulled on her flippers instead of immediately following, She then reached into one of her many pockets and ate Gillyweed before slipping into water rather unhurriedly and unpretentiously.

The water was cold, and the sensation of growing gills was as unpleasant as it had been every time before.

Sam quickly pulled her knife, cutting the unwanted webbings between her fingers healing it quickly, before casting the Point Me spell. Once she had a good sense of where she needed to go, she started swimming in the direction the wand was pointing

The water, while quite cold, was surprisingly clear. Sam hadn't even swum a few hundred yards when she passed by Jeffrey the giant squid. Luna had informed her that he was named Jeffrey, and Sam had nothing to dispute that claim.

When Sam just was a safe distance from him, she saw flashes of light. Growing curious when the flashes started to weaken, she swam towards them like a moth flying towards a light in the night.

What she saw was a group of Grindylows attacking Fleur furiously while Fleur's spells were rapidly growing weaker. She was losing the battle right in front of Sam's eyes.

Sam didn't hesitate as she started to cast piercing and cutting charms while pulling the gun and firing one round into nearby Grindylow that was trying to sneak up on her. The water demon caught the round right, its skull caving in rather messily.

The other Grindylows quickly sensed that their prey wasn't worth the risk of being killed, and so retreated, choosing instead to attack their own, feeding on them. Soon the place was clear of Grindylows.

Fleur was panting and gave Sam weak thumbs up. She tried to swim forward and Sam scowled at the older champion, thinking, "_She must have tired herself out with that fight. At that speed, she can't possibly make it;_ _or worse yet, she'll get herself killed._" Sam swam up next to Fleur and gestured to her if she wanted send up red sparks.

The French champion wildly shook her head and continued swimming. Sam sighed and muttered something about "Damsel in distress, I am such a man."

Well she would have muttered it, but one of the side effects of gillyweed was loss of power of speech since no air reached her voice box.

Sam was impressed by Fleur's display stubbornness as she worked desperately to keep swimming forward.

With a one strong and resolute stroke Sam caught up to Fleur and tapped her on her arm. When Fleur looked at Sam, she gestured to the bubble around Fleurs head gesturing if she could hold it. When Sam received a nod Sam with another move was under Fleur and caught Fleurs arms wrapping them around her own neck and started swimming, once she was sure that fleur understood her she let Fleur to get a better grasp and let her arms go and started to gain speed.

Fleur was at first confused why was the English girl so willing to help her. When the Grindylows attacked, she saw herself being dragged down to depths of the lake, ending as fish-demon food. And her little sister… she didn't even want to finish that thought. Then the English un-champion, as she preferred to be called, appeared and not only drove the Grindylows away, but was now also giving her a free ride.

She felt little more secure now, since her magical reserves weren't that great underwater - they were good enough for keeping the bubble head charm on with some small reserves, but that was it. To make herself bit more useful, she lit a cone version of **Lumos **charm, providing a flashlight for Sam.

Sam swam hard and fast, and after another fifteen gruelling minutes they reached the village. Except for a brief sighting of a kelpie that had been heading their way for a few moments, the rest of their journey had proceeded without further interruption. Luckily, the demon had changed direction and headed deeper into the lake, away from the direction they had been headed.

Nevertheless, it left both girls uneasy because Kelpies were not only dangerous, but weren't supposed to be here in the first place. Had some smeghead at the Ministry gotten the bright idea to bring in some Kelpies to "spice up" the task? Sam decided to not dwell on that thought, as it was more than probable, and instead she focused on the task at hand.

Once they reached to the underwater village, they headed directly towards its centre. Along the way they passed a choir of the singing merfolk, their voices sounding like nails on blackboard. As far as Sam could determine, it was all total gibberish.

Sam couldn't help the random thought that Hans Christian Andersen and Disney were way off with their description of mermaids. Way, way off. All fins and scales, faces more like some kind of deep-sea fish monster, mouths full of needle-sharp teeth, and no hair. All in all, butt ugly rather than the charming little princesses with beautiful voices.

"_Well you can't have everything_," Sam thought as they headed to a monument in the centre where four poles had been erected. On each of them was a figure who had been tied to it.

Sam had nearly a mild heart attack when she saw a big-ass shark head seemingly grafted to a human body, but then she recognised Victor's shorts, because she just totally started to look for an air tank.

"_Fuck,_ _no more Jaws for me_," Sam thought grimly. She felt as Fleur let go and swim straight to the youngest hostage. That's when Sam understood her panic. "_That girl couldn't be more than ten for goodness sake_! _Bastards!_"

With that, Sam pulled her wand and cast a quick cutting charms to free Hermione from her confinement. She then checked on Fleur, who was struggling to cut the last of the ropes on her own hostage, and cast another cutting spell, thus freeing the little girl.

While Fleur checked on her sister, Sam proceeded with her back-up plan. Originally, she had intended hightail it outta there as fast as she could, with Hermione tied to her in a manner not dissimilar to how parachute instructor is tied to a pupil in tandem jumps, but with four of them now, that plan went right out of the window.

Sam rummaged in her mokeskin bag for a bit, eventually pulling out piece of rope tied to flat balloon and metal flask with a valve connected to it. She gestured to Fleur to use the rope. Fleur didn't understand but did as Sam demonstrated. And then Sam looked at Hermione.

And Sam's heart stopped, because she was staring into Hermione's opened eyes.

Hermione tried to take a breath when the ice-cold water filled her mouth and invaded her lungs, the icy pressure crushing her. She saw pair of green eyes just as she started to panic and black out.

Fleur watched as the polite girl that was Miss Potter's hostage opened eyes and started to drown, frantically kicking around. She saw as the English champion froze for a second, dropping her wand, before she reacted and like flash was on her hostage, fighting her frenetic movements while trying to grab her wand that was dangling from string, but which was escaping with every desperate grab as if it was guided by a malevolent spirit. Eventually Miss Potter gave up and wrenched something from her pouch and violently fed it to her hostage.

Sam cursed as she lost her grip on her wand and tried to hold on to a girl who was fighting for her dear life. At first she tried to catch her wand, but after few seconds without success, she force-fed Hermione with a fifteen-minute dose of Gillyweed.

Hermione calmed when she suddenly found that she could breath again. The pressure lowered, and only the frigid coldness remained. She felt Ri was holding her close and not letting her go.

Not letting her friend go, Sam helped her to a more vertical position. Sam finally managed to grab her wand and cast a warming spell on Hermione, and as an afterthought she cast two more on Fleur and her little sister.

With that done, Sam grabbed the rope and helped Hermione to secure herself as she opened the valve. Helium filled the balloon and they rocketed up.

Sam wasn't bothered with decompression sickness due to effects of gillyweed on her and Hermione, while Fleur and her sister could cope because of the Bubblehead and stasis spells that were on them.

Just as they broke the surface, Sam cut the rope and the spectators received their first excitement as large, bright-yellow balloon broke the surface and flew away. They didn't notice four heads poking from the water.

Sam reached into her moleskin pouch again and awkwardly pulled out another yellow thing, this time large rolled-up thing and pulled a cord on it, causing it to It quickly expand into emergency inflatable life raft.

Sam then helped Fleur in it before they handed over Fleur's sister who had woken up after they reached the surface.

Sam reached into the second pouch on the belt and removed small vial of Gillyweed reversal potion before giving it to Hermione, gesturing to her to drink it.

Hermione did so, grimacing at the taste, and Sam helped her into the boat.

Being the last, Sam pulled out a second vial and knocked back it into herself. Its taste reminded her of the time she had been moving through old sewers and how the air had tasted then. Sam gulped down the potion with a shudder. The gills receded and she pulled herself into the boat, sitting at the back

Once in the boat Fleur, felt better because her magic was returning her. She didn't know what to say to the un-champion, so she settled with casting another round of warming and drying charms on everybody, receiving grateful nods from the English witches.

"Everyone in?" Sam asked in French. "Everyone warm enough?"

After receiving nods, Sam tapped the side of the boat, muttering a spell, which caused the small craft to lurch and start to moving, gaining speed as it zoomed towards the shore.

Once they were near enough, Sam stopped casting and let the boat to gently ride up on the shore. They disembarked slowly and headed to the infirmary tent. Sam could see that Fleur. Being out of water and her magical powers restored, had managed to conjure four thick blankets which everyone wrapped themselves in.

Madame Pomfrey ushered them inside and started to fuss over them. With the speed of ascent to the surface and the speed they zoomed over the lake in the boat, the quartet was first to arrive, so they had Madame Pomfrey's full attention pouring vile tasting potions down their throats before anyone could protest. The taste of said potions made the potion Sam had drunk earlier seem like an exquisite drink.

When she finished fussing around Sam and her companions, Madame Pomfrey moved to other patients who had arrived in the meantime.

As she understood it, Bumblebeeman was conversing with a chieftain of the merpeople clan now that all champions had returned,discussing the events that occurred underwater.

The champions were called out to be told the scores once they had been reasonably attended to by the school nurse.

"Madame Pomfrey?" Sam called. Once she had the mediwitch's attention, she continued, "As always, I must express my heartfelt gratitude for your exquisite care. I just wish I didn't need it so often."

"You are welcome, I too wish that we hadn't seen each other so often," Madame Pomfrey remarked with a kind smile. "Now was there anything else?"

Sam nodded. "Yes could you perhaps tell me who charmed the hostages?"

The question alone sounded innocent, but Madame Pomfrey had her suspicions and asked in a wary tone, "I'm sorry, but I do not know, why do you ask?"

"So I can kill them slowly and painfully," Sam replied evenly, as if it was perfectly normal. With that Sam followed the rest of the champions to the judges' stands.

Sam ignored most of their speech. There was something strange going on - Crouch was missing again and Percy "Weatherby" was covering for him. Just that very morning, though Crouch had been in the castle with Moody, if Sam's memory served her well.

When it came to Fleur and her difficulties, the judges took it badly and heavily penalised her. The only exception was Madame Maxime, who gave Fleur solid eight for just trying despite being in severe disadvantage.

The judges didn't approve Sam's actions and her pursuit of international cooperation by helping another champion to complete the task With the exception of Madame Maxime and Bagman, they gave Sam full scores. Sam didn't give a rat's ass, but she was surprise that she got an full score of ten points for being selfless by Madame Maxine and Bagman.

Immediately when the scores were finished, Sam asked how it was possible that the charm on Hermione failed and whose sloppy work it was.

But all she got was inane bluster from Dumbledore while "Weatherby" Weasley and Karkaroff had practically called her a liar. Bagman knew nothing, probably because the repeated bludgers to his head had scrambled his brains, so he was as useful as an ejection seat in helicopter. Madame Maxime pulled Sam aside promised to try to find out, which was the only thing preventing Sam from blowing up on them. Sam had to agree, though, that making a scene wouldn't help her case anyway. She didn't need witnesses for such confrontation. No, witnesses were definitely not needed

What surprised her, though, was that Fleur said that she owned her if not life debt than at least debt of honour. While not as serious as life debt, it seemed that Fleur took it like that. It was funny, despite of the antagonism the two female champions shared at the beginning, their relationship had become at least amicable. Moreover, thanks to Sam's friendship with Michelle, quite few Beauxbatons students started to look differently at her. They all saw how the physically older girl had been flourishing under Sam's wing and approved.

Sam pondered the debt for a second before she named her terms: one favour in the future and an attempt at friendship. Fleur agreed without complain. Truth to be told, the stipulations could have been much worse.

The evening after the task found Sam sitting in the common room in front of fireplace staring into the fire. Luna had left for her dorm earlier, though not after saying that she was very proud of Sam.

It left Sam bit warm and fuzzy inside. Hermione, on the other hand, was shaken to her very core. Not only she had been kidnapped from her bed, but she had woken up at the bottom of a lake.

Sam still had no answers about what had happened, and was more than a little grumpy over the situation as she forced her gaze back to a small notebook with her notes, reviewing everything about the past year.

The problem was that her investigation into the annual plot on her life had turned up a surprising lack of evidence, and she couldn't properly interrogate any suspects.

Yes, she could always pin it on the DADA teacher - he was showing somewhat odd behaviour for old copper - but Crouch was behaving suspiciously lately, too. Even so, she couldn't properly interrogate either or do deep background checks. And had to make do with data she had available.

She knew that those two were old colleagues, and that Crouch's political ambitions had gone down the drain when his son had been revealed to be a death eater - and what's more that son had been arrested by none other than Moody.

It made very little sense that Crouch was hanging out in Moody's office so often. His motivation didn't sit right with Sam - what he could gain? More prestige for the tournament, perhaps with having the Girl Who Lived participating, but she had damaged that with her statement about not being a champion. Making her life hell in response would be expected, but only after the tournament ended. So why now?

She struggled to come up with a better motive for either of her prime suspects, but Sam's train of thought was derailed when Hermione's head shifted on Sam's shoulder a bit, and she let out a cute little snore. Sam gave her a cautious glance fearing that she'd woken her friend.

The girl in question had been clinging to Sam ever since they'd left the lake and hadn't moved more than two feet from her. But who could blame her? After that near brush of death, the bushy-haired girl needed all comfort she could get, and Sam was resolute in not wanting to let her out of her sight. The moment she saw Hermione's eyes open while they were still under water had broken something Sam. She sure she would end up seeing that moment replayed over and over in her nightmares for years to come.

With glance to her watch, Sam decided that she could continue her research tomorrow. She gently lifted Hermione and carried her to her bed, but then she ran into the problem that the girl started to softly whimper when she left her side. With a sigh, Sam decided to lay down next to her and let Hermione curl into her side. Her last thought was that at least this fucked-up day is over, before she too fell asleep.


End file.
